Development of Solutions for Surface Combatants

Dipl.-Ing. Ullrich Keil GF MTG Marinetechnik GmbH Hamburg Development of Solutions for Surface Combatants Support Services of MTG for the Government / Navy regarding Feasibility, Efficiency, Risks concerning realization approaches This presentation outlines the way MTG provides support to the German Ministry of Defence (MoD) in its planning efforts to develop concepts within the procurement process of new surface combatants. These planning tasks are normally part of the analysis phase of the national governmental procurement process. Upon completion of the planning tasks there are particular solutions described to reduce recognized capability deficiencies with minimum risk regarding their technical and economical feasibility. The business activities of MTG will be presented as a series of questions and answers. 1. Why does MTG exist? Why was MTG established? 2. What services are rendered by MTG? 3. What assistance does VORGES provide? 4. What role does the customer play when VORGES is used? 5. How are promising solutions found using conceptual designs? 6. What results are achieved with conceptual designs? 7. How are solution ideas evaluated? 8. How can the assessment risk be minimised? 9. What is required for the development of preliminary designs? 10. How can feasibility, efficiency and risks be documented? 11. What is necessary to make good use of VORGES? 12. What complementary services does MTG offer? The overview presents the essential work of the planning engineers at MTG. This essential work is formalized by an Overall Ship Design Process Toolset named VORGES (Vorgehensmodell Gesamt(system)entwurf Schiff). Of course, these questions and answers do not encompass all possible queries that could arise. The presentation is structured by these questions in the order indicated to give t e direct h opportunity for explanations. 1 Support of German Navy, German MoD, Federal Office for Defence Technology and Procurement (BWB) MTG was founded in June 1966 at the instigation of the German government by the naval shipbuilding industries of those days. The intended status of being the centralized design and construction office of the shipyards has changed with the introduction of the principle of general contractor responsibility for naval ships. Since then, MTG has obtained the status of being a highly qualified engineering office working for the government and for industry in general. Currently, the role of MTG is to support the German Navy, the German MoD and the Federal Agency for Defence Technology and Procurement (BWB). MTG studies and investigates a variety of alternatives in the early phases of naval ship procurement. This is often to carry out in a tight time schedule, in order for the client to be able to sign a procurement contract which is within the federal budget planning goals. − Execution of feasibility studies for combat vessels − Impartial and objective consultancy without manufacturer interests − Total cost estimation in an early planning stage The feasibility of conceptual designs is examined, while remaining impartial to industrial interest. In doing so, total system costs can be estimated at an early planning stage. MTG has successfully undertaken these tasks for more than 40 years. Support of planners – value optimizing tasks The keywords ‘support of planners’ highlights that the services offered by MTG are mainly found in the Analysis Phase. As required by the CPM standard procedure, the feasibility as well as the efficiency of possible solutions is described in order to assess the risk of realization. To this end, almost 2 precise ship designs have to be developed, examined and assessed with regard to cost and performance. The guidelines result from MOD-defined military requirements which cover one or more capability deficiencies. MTG is responsible for translating these requirements into attributes of surface combatants. Submarine design is not a business enterprise of MTG. Feasibility solutions: This phrase suggests that more than one solution is possible. Economic efficiency: This phrase implies that the planning of warships is concerned with the search for the best military and technical value for the budget invested. These are optimization tasks. These tasks cannot be solved analytically with use of mathematical algorithms alone; however they can be solved methodically. These tasks can be organized into a process following their inherent logical order. This leads to a process model for designing ships, which we call VORGES. What assistance does VORGES provide? VORGES is a process model, which describes the procedure of designing surface combatants. The basic idea of such a process model is to outline the tasks and activities required in the design process in its logical order of working steps. VORGES - forms the overall process in its logical order - organizes the process of s tructured phases and stages of work - arranges the work in steps, and - defines the necessary tools for the work in order to execute the task with minimum effort. VORGES organizes the process in several structured phases, in which working steps are defined and in which adequate methods and design calculations are applied. 3 Customer’s role when VORGES is used Compilation of the requirements by the customer (usually government / navy) Stage 1: Development of solutions by comprehensive, widespread investigations into many conceptual designs. Selection by the customer Stage 2: Validation of the results by detailed examination of one or more preliminary designs Acceptance of the solution by the customer Participation and decision making The government, as an active partner, is the provider of the tasks and requirements. It also has to examine the results and to decide on milestones. The tasks derive from the general defence issue of closing military capability gaps. For the investigation of platform-related solutions a requirement catalogue is compiled. The developed solutions are then evaluated to assess how many of the established requirements have been met. In order to make this assessment, the importance of the given requirements are ranked by priority. After completion of a certain working period, selections are then made as to how to continue, based on the available results. The procedure of VORGES is divided into two main working periods: In the first stage the task of finding an optimized solution is accommodated. A comprehensive examination of a wide bandwidth of different solution ideas is carried out. Every solution is developed to the stage of being a rough ship outline (conceptual design), accompanied by cost and performance assessments. The comparison of the results indicates the most promising options. The designs chosen will be developed in more detail in the second stage to improve the accuracy of the first draft results. The planning authorities decide which of the designs are more likely to fulfil the requirements; taking feasibility, cost effectiveness and risks into consideration. Promising solutions found using conceptual designs Stage 1 is the development of solutions by comprehensive, widespread examination of many conceptual designs’ Stage 1 is managed in 8 steps: 1. Analysis of the requirements 2. Development of basic solution ideas 3. Formulation of design ideas 4. Compilation, modification and development of portioned technical component groups to form conceptual building blocks 5. Development of conceptual designs 6. Calculation of technical performance, costs and risks 7. Verification of the military capability 8. Appraisal of the conceptual ideas 4 The first stage starts with the analysis of the given requirements, determining the importance of each requirement, and with the development of ideas for possible solutions. In doing so, an important issue regarding the continuation of the process has to be taken into account: Normally it is difficult to find a solution that fulfils the requirements completely, within budget. The affordable solutions may fulfil only some of the requirements. Therefore the importance of each individual requirement has to be considered. Consequently, a multitude of solutions arise, each differing in the number of requirements fulfilled. Any solution and its underlying capabilities can be described in more than one technical design by using different building blocks. This further enlarges the number of design alternatives, each of which have to be investigated and worked out as conceptual designs. Different technical systems, e.g. propulsion systems, incorporated to the same design idea create even more alternatives. The phrase ‘successful solution’ thereby is related to the balance of realized requirements within any design and the associated costs. Recognized special risks may be interpreted as additional cost elements. Results - achieved with conceptual designs Any elaborate conceptual design, which is a roughly outlined technical solution for the required system, comprises at least the following: − Main dimensions of the ship design − Assessed performance data − Main payload components − Expected crew size − Assessed budgetary costs Assumed risk elements within the building blocks utilised, components or integration aspects are stated.