Recent Early-Phase Naval Ship Systems Engineering for Republic of Korea Navy Surface Combatant Design

Recently, the Republic of Korea Navy and domestic shipyards successfully completed early-phase designs for several surface combatants, including a destroyer, a frigate, a minesweeper, and a fast patrol craft. With the founding of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration in 2006, many changes in the naval ship acquisition environment and weapon development process occurred. The conventional approach of integrating proven weapon systems onto platforms was replaced by applying a concurrent engineering approach of platform and weapon systems, further increasing the complexity and uncertainty of naval ship design. Traditional spiral design may not be a viable option to handle the complexity and uncertainty of tomorrow's or even today's navy ships. Rather, naval ship design demands a systems thinking approach to draw a systems-level view that includes ship systems integration, lifecycle concerns and cost-effectiveness. This paper introduces the process, methods, tools, and environment paradigm to explain the systems engineering activities employed in recent early-phase naval ship designs. We hope to share the insights gained from past projects with future project leaders and other navies facing with similar situations. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policies or rules of the Republic of Korea Navy or any industrial participants.