Operationally Oriented Vulnerability Requirements in the Ship Design Process

Abstract

ABSTRACT For the first time in a toplevel requirements document—the Land Attack Destroyer (DD 21) Operational Requirements Document (ORD)—the U. S. Navy has implemented performance requirements that relate ship vulnerability to threat weapon types and the level of mission capability remaining after a ship is hit. The Navy's Ship Operational Characteristics Study recommended an operational survivability standard of this type in 1988. It is needed to define clearly to the designer the levels of operational capability that must remain after a ship is hit, and to let decision makers know what to expect from ships they are buying. It also is needed to provide a benchmark against which the results of Live Fire lest and Evaluation (LFT & E) can be compared. This paper discusses various approaches for formulating operationally oriented vulnerability requirements (OOVRs), a way to balance OOVRs with susceptibility requirements, and how OOVRs can be implemented at the ship design level. The paper also discusses possible concerns associated with implementing OOVRs, and how they can be resolved. It recommends that OOVRs be implemented for each new U. S. Navy combatant ship acquisition program, including submarines.