Revitalization of Naval Surface Warfare Center Excellence in Early Stage Combat System Engineering

For at least a decade, the surface Navy community has abdicated roles to industry in early stage ship concept exploration, requirements definition, and architecture development. Since the late 20th century, industry was given these roles in the hopes that freedom to innovate in a competitive environment would result in performance improvements combined with cost savings and acceleration of delivery. This initiative, known as Acquisition Reform, resulted in some unintended consequences such as lack of cost realism, exacerbation of interoperability problems, and increased total ownership cost due to increased system variations. As a result, the surface Navy community has reestablished its role in early stage ship design processes to avoid future problems and to manage and engineer systems with focus toward an enterprise approach. To adapt to its revitalized role, the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) instituted a concerted effort to reinvigorate early stage ship and mission system design capabilities. The NSWC is bolstering organizational capabilities in the areas of people skills, processes, communications, tools, and industry interactions to ensure implementation of the most effective design to support the force and warfighters within the current austere budget environment. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD), in concert with the other Surface Warfare Centers, has been building on its existing foundation for the development of analysis, requirements, and architecture. This is not being done to the exclusion of industry in the equation in that the talents and experience of all combat system design contributors must be brought to bear in this restricted-funding environment but in the appropriate roles while recognizing each organization's strengths. The authors of this paper investigated four key aspects to the combat systems engineering responsibilities in early stage combat system design that are consistent with NSWCDD Strategic Plan. Presented at the Naval Postgraduate School Annual Acquisition Research Symposium (9th) held in Monterey, CA on 16-17 May 2012. Published in the Proceedings of the Naval Postgraduate School Annual Acquisition Research Symposium (9th), v1 p343-380, 2012.