Defence Industry

Design Review of Naval Platforms
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Issue Vol 25.1 Jan-Mar2010 | Date : 04 Mar , 2011

It is the responsibility of the review team to initiate inquiries into areas that appear technically weak, and introduce design alternatives for discussion”¦

The composition of the design review team is of great essence. To realize the basic objective of the review process, the review team must have a collective technical competence greater than that of the designer. The composition of the specialists may vary, appropriate to the category of the review. In general the review core team shall not consist of the designer or personnel in a direct line of authority to the designer. The design review team should consist of members who have knowledge and expertise in the naval designs. The members may be opted from within the country and from abroad to induct fresh ideas, talent and wisdom. This will help in achieving the state of the art design.

For success of the design review process, both the review team and the programme management need to have definite responsibilities. The review team must define the input data package, set the agenda and nominate the co-opted specialists. The review team has the responsibility to carry out the review by utilizing the data provided and asses the adequacy of the team output and direct management attention to design deficiencies while correction is still chronologically and economically feasible. It is the responsibility of the review team to initiate inquiries into areas that appear technically weak, and introduce design alternatives for discussion and to recommend suitable design changes. The programme management has the responsibility of providing a favourable climate for the review process and ensure, that the design calculations, documents and the relevant normative orders are made available to the review team.

The review frequency shall generally be governed by the project milestone but interim reviews may be conducted depending on the significance of the system complexity.

The review team’s effectiveness depends on the input data made available. The input data must include the design calculations, normative standards, assumptions made, criteria adopted, supporting documents, model test reports and details of prior reviews.

The results of the review are recorded as data output. The design calculations need to be verified and checked for accuracy, compared with the performance expectations and report the findings in a systematic manner. The basis on which the review team places confidence in the design which it finds perfect needs to be stated. Like wise, the basis of reported design deficiencies and corrective measures also need to be elaborated. The final data output will be an orderly compilation of review proceedings, listing the actions that are to be taken.

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If a core team of some permanent members for a particular system is constituted then continuity is ensured in the review process. Of course, the follow up will be essential to derive the benefits of the system. A closed loop system needs to be established to ensure that appropriate design change action has been taken or additional inputs and study have validated the design.

Design Reviews during Naval Platform Design

The birth of a naval ship starts with issue of staff requirements. The design process involves various iterations. Design reviews are conducted appropriately when the projects reach defined milestones in their design cycle. In consonance with the milestones which are applicable to warship design evaluation process, the following stages qualify for design review and these are categorized accordingly:-

  • Staff requirements — design review
  • Concept design — design review
  • Weapons, sensors, machinery, equipment selection — design review
  • Preliminary/Sketch design — design review
  • Detailed/Technical design — design review
  • Workshop design drawing — design review
  • Equipment inspection test schedules — design review
  • Quality review during ship construction
  • Final design review post launching and prior to commencement of sea trials

On one occasion, when we were carrying out design review after preliminary/sketch design, it was found staff requirements needed to be amended. This led to correction in the preliminary/sketch design, delaying the process of design by nearly two years. This could have been avoided if the design reviews on the stipulated staff requirements had been conducted. It may therefore be appreciated that design reviews after each of the above milestones are essential for the smooth success of the complete design process. In each of the design reviews the elements of the design review, i.e. objective, review team, input data, output data etc., will need to be specifically defined and worked upon.

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The final design review prior to the commencement of sea trials is crucial. Such a review should commence immediately after launching so that while the final fitting-out, buttoning-up of systems and HATS are going on, the final design review can be processed and completed much before the ship sails for sea trials.

Conclusion

Formal design reviews give confirmation that the design is complete, accurate and there are no apparent errors and shortcomings. Design reviews yield tremendous benefits when experts are drawn from reputed design community, national and international, and transfuse their talent and wisdom into the design process. This leads to utilization of the latest technology to produce state-of-the-art designs, giving the most optimum solutions and ensuring that at least they are superior to those acquired by our adversaries.

This will take us beyond the traditional practice of restricting design consultations with just the user and the maintainer, resulting in a quantum improvement in the way we have been designing ships. Design reviews need to be conducted at every milestone of the design process to ensure that shortcomings do not accumulate and corrective actions are concurrently taken as the design progresses. And finally, design reviews have to be done as an independent evaluation at the completed stage of the naval platform design.

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The views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of the Indian Defence Review.

About the Author

Vice Adm Rajeshwer Nath

Vice Adm (Retd) Rajeshwer Nath.

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