Set-Based Design and the Ship to Shore Connector

The Ship to Shore Connector (SSC), a replacement for the Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC), is the first government-led design of a ship in over 15 years. This paper will discuss the changes that a government-led design presents to the design approach, including schedule, organization structure, and design methodology. While presenting challenges, a government-led design also afforded the opportunity to implement a new technique for assessing various systems and ship alternatives, set-based design (SBD). The necessity for implementing SBD was the desire to design SSC from a blank sheet of paper and the need for a replacement craft in a short time frame. That is, the LCACs need to be replaced and consequently the preliminary design phase of the SSC program will only be 12 months. This paper will describe SBD and how it was applied to the SSC, the challenges that the program faced, and an assessment of the new methodology, along with recommendations that future design programs should consider when adopting this approach.