Naval Architecture and System Engineering: A Deal for Naval Ship Design Evolution

The design of warships has always represented the challenging field of naval architecture: compared with the design of cargo ships, it is a demanding task, usually of superior complexity. During the latest decades, the design process has known an intense re-engineering course, characterized by the proposal to embark System Engineering principles and methodology. It is assumed that this new approach could be suitable to face challenges of naval ship design, especially when dealing with the modern defence acquisition policy. Systems Engineering is a relatively recent field of engineering: it has arisen to deal with the increasing complexity of systems and projects, their interdisciplinary nature and their need to be tackled on a life-cycle perspective. Furthermore System Engineering helps to enforce a continuous assessment and improvement of the design, in order to ascertain and balance its different performances. In the paper, a reflection is proposed about naval architecture origin and its development along the various scientific paradigms: from its roots in 17th century, to the present System Age. The analysis of naval architecture challenges in the context of System Engineering will be attempted, with reference to the extensive use of Information Technology and Computer Science resources.