High level capability analysis of submarine platforms

The procurement of a new class of submarines is a significant undertaking for any country. As with all major procurement projects the correct definition of the requirement set and a clear understanding of the cost drivers serve to de-risk the entire program. Further to understanding the cost drivers, procurement agencies must be able to dissect proposals put forward by industry to enable comparative assessments to be made. The Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) are currently developing an Integrated Platform Systems Model (IPSM) to enable high level performance analysis of submarine platforms to be carried out across multiple design configurations and option sets offered by different manufacturers. An application of this work is research into the influence of changing operational requirements on sub-system integration risks, design tradeoffs, and the flexibility of different configuration options. QinetiQ GRC have been engaged by DSTO to provide a fully parametric and generic submarine design within the Paramarine naval architecture design suite; which is representative of a modern SSK and is capable of being remotely modified by the DSTO IPSM tool. This joint paper describes the background and scope to the project, and outlines the processes governing interaction between the two tools.