Alternatives Impact in Combatant-Ship Design

This thesis continues the development of a systems methodology for the conceptual design of a medium-tonnage combatant ship for the Colombian navy. The purpose is to demonstrate the impact that different systems and operational capabilities have on overall design. The objective is to demonstrate new tools for studying tradeoffs in ship design, based on ship capability, allowing informed design-configuration decisions that enhance warfighting effectiveness over multiple missions, with explicit consideration given to combat and weapon-system characteristics. Once the mission capabilities that a ship must accomplish have been identified, a set of ship designs is created using a synthesis model, which is then formed into a multidimensional design space. Mission-effectiveness models are then used to simulate how well specific mission are accomplished in realistic warfighting scenarios. The ship design space and each mission-effectiveness space are formed using response-surface designs created through a design of experiments methodology. The mission scenarios reside in a multiple-criteria decision space in which ship alternatives are assessed as solutions to the overall design problem. The combat-system design variables link the multiple response surfaces to form the relationships between mission capabilities and ship characteristics. A statistical analysis tool, JMP, creates a graphical environment that decision makers can use to interactively analyze different ship alternatives and determine the most effective design from a warfighting perspective. The thesis demonstrates an example of selecting conceptual designs that meet desired mission-effectiveness criteria for medium-tonnage combatant ships engaged in mission scenarios of interest to the Colombian navy.