Professional Development Hours (1 hour) are available for this webinar.
The U.S. Navy has experimented with many approaches to design and build its ships. Using an existing design as the “parent” design, also referred to as “modified-repeat” design, is on its face an attractive option. The anticipated advantages are many:
- Avoid the scrutiny that a new clean sheet design receives from the many Department of Defense (DoD) offices, usually in the form of additional approval milestones
- Argue that design and construction costs will be less
- Rationalize that construction can start earlier in the acquisition process
- Circumvent the additional requirements that the Navy’s technical authorities impose
- Sell the program more easily, promising reduced technical risks by only modifying a successful design.
Yet, a number of naval ships based on a parent design have in fact experienced unanticipated cost and schedule growth during construction as well as technical problems during their in-service lives. The authors will examine four ship designs which were based on an existing design and/or prototypes and highlight the fallacies of such beliefs and assumptions.
The authors will also briefly describe the development and use of more physics-based design tools during early stage design that can reduce the risks of a new clean sheet ship design through design space exploration and actual design maturation. The authors are convinced from our experience on over fifty major naval ship designs that much of the unbudgeted and unnecessary growth in the costs to produce naval ships can be attributed to poor design decisions during early concept design. Achieving a truly mature or stable ship design earlier in the design process is critical for ensuring successful ship design, acquisition, construction, and in-service outcomes.
Speakers
CAPT Barry Tibbitts, USN (Ret);
Robert G. Keane, Jr., President, Ship Design USA, Inc.
Capt. Tibbitts is broadly qualified in all aspects of naval engineering, for both surface ships and submarines, including R&D, design, construction, maintenance, and operations. He was educated at the U.S. Naval Academy and earned two graduate degrees from MIT, served five years at sea on three ships earning surface and submarine warfare qualifications, and spent eight years in shipyards. He commanded the 2700-person David Taylor Naval Ship R&D Center, was Director of the NAVSEA Ship Design Group for six years, and professor of Naval Construction and Engineering at MIT. He has published numerous papers on naval ship design, acquisition, and technology, and is the author of chapters in four books He is a Fellow of SNAME and an honorary life member of ASNE. He received ASNE’s Harold E Saunders Award for lifetime achievements in naval engineering (2006), ASNE’s “Jimmie” Hamilton Award (2018), and SNAME’s ABS Captain Joseph H. Linnard Prize (2019). He is an Assoc. Editor of the Naval Engineers Journal.
ROBERT G. KEANE, JR., President, Ship Design USA, Inc. has over 50 years of naval ship design experience, 35 years of which were in senior technical leadership positions at the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). During 21 years as a member of the Federal Senior Executive Service (SES), he served as the U.S. Navy’s Chief Naval Architect, Chief of Ship Design, Director of Ship Survivability and Technical Authority for Total Ship System Engineering and Hull Form Design, Stability and Hydrodynamics. His Navy-led ship design teams completed over 35 major Contract Designs which resulted in the acquisition of about 200 naval ships. He now heads his own consulting firm; Ship Design USA, Inc. Mr. Keane received a B.E.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University, a M.E. from Stevens Institute of Technology in ship hydrodynamics, and a M.S.E. in Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering from the University of Michigan. He is a Life Fellow of SNAME and a Life member of ASNE, as well as Chair of the SNAME-ASNE Joint Ship Design Committee. He is a plank-owner of the Navy’s Center for Innovation in Ship Design, is well published and has received numerous honorary awards, including the National Academy of Sciences Gibbs Brothers Medal, Secretary of the Navy Distinguished Civilian Service Award, SNAME RADM David Taylor Medal, and ASNE CAPT Harold Saunders and Frank Law Awards. He was born and raised in Baltimore, married his high school sweetheart and they have three sons and six grandchildren.