ABSTRACT
Clearly, if the design team selects a good basis ship, and if the new requirements do not entail major modifications from it, this is a reliable and rapid method. One obvious shortcoming of the traditional process, then, is that if the designers are presented with operational requirements that differ radically from those of any previous ship in their data bank, they will be unable to choose their basis ship with confidence. Another potential problem is the lack of comprehensive standards. The design team is continually checking specific performance but there is no way of assessing how closely they are approaching an optimum design. Without new integrated tools the exploration of enough cases to be certain all the changes have been done in the best possible way is very difficult. In other words, the experienced designer can be confident of produc-
1 INTRODUCTION
Ship design represents an inherently complex process: this complexity is significantly increased when the particular ship being designed is a naval surface combatant.
