Multi-Role Vessels: Design, Manning & Cost Drivers

Informed by the Naval Design Partnering involvement in concept design for future UK warships and auxiliary vessels, this paper comments on the technological developments supporting the emergence of multi-role vessels in modern navies, including both manpower considerations and what modularity or flexibility means for the future cost-capability trade space for naval design. It refers to the future trends in naval surface ship designs and technologies, including expected trends in autonomy and unmanned systems. It challenges traditional views on deploying capability, considers the design and cost drivers for multi-role vessels and explores what this might mean in terms of how complexity impacts ship size and cost. A key consideration is how well the different roles can co-exist in one vessel, with examples given of different roles that would dovetail together well to address the concurrency requirement of different capabilities in a single ship. The paper reflects on the significance of naval manpower as the key through life cost driver for naval programmes, and the implications for the manning solutions and cost of future multi-role ship concepts.