Andrews, David; (2023) Capability versus Availability in Submarine Design. In: Warship 2023 Conference: Delivering Submarine Capability and Availability with Agility and Pace. (pp. pp. 27-42). The Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA): Bath, UK.

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Abstract

Capability and Availability are seen as terms adopted to encapsulate major features required in designing a new major warship, such as a submarine. With these terms it is worth considering what they mean when it comes to designing such complex naval vessels. This paper firstly considers both of these terms in turn and questions whether capability is often too narrowly defined and, aside from affordability issues, which are clearly crucial in designing any complex system to meet a set of capabilities, capability could be seen to be all embracing in regard to the set of qualities desired for a new class of vessels. If this is so, then “capability” ought to cover availability among other whole boat performance characteristics. Turning to availability, from a design stance it is considered this has been something of a Cinderella topic when scrutinising discussions on submarine design in the open literature. Thus, there follows a brief review of some key published sources, including those presented at the RINA submarine conferences, which started with the RINA 1983 International Submarine Symposium. This leads to consideration as to why availability seems to be addressed relatively late in the traditional submarine design process, such that any drop off in a class of submarines, in regard to that force’s expected availability, might not be revealed until such a new squadron of vessels is fully in-service. This then raises the question as to how the process of designing such complex vessels might be better focused, in early stage design, to address the issue of availability. Without better consideration of fleet wide availability, the other operational capabilities sought in an affordable new design are unlikely to be effectively deployed at sea to a cost-effective level of availability. This new focus for submarine designers, is seen to be best addressed from the start by adopting an architecturally based “ship synthesis” approach and to be assessed at a fleet or class level.

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