An Approach to Turn–Key Communications Suites for New Construction Ships

ABSTRACT“Turn‐Key” is an innovative approach for the design, acquisition, integration, and installation of Radio Communications Systems for new construction ships. It has been developed by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SpaWar) to cope with the growing problem of ships being delivered to the fleet with outdated or obsolete communications technology. The Turn‐Key approach provides both performance and affordability benefits.Under the traditional ship design process, the baseline configuration of the communications suite is effectively frozen 5–7 years before delivery of the ship. In the current fixed price shipbuilding environment, the costs of engineering change proposals (ECPs) to implement communications suite design changes have become prohibitive. The design inflexibility created by these schedule and cost constraints affects the Navy's ability to implement communications technology advancements in new construction ships. At the point of delivery, most new construction ships already have an inherent “bow‐wave” of required communications subsystem/equipment upgrades which must be accomplished under the Fleet Modernization Program.Under the turn‐key approach, the Navy assumes full responsibility for design, acquisition, land‐based system integration, and (in some cases) shipboard installation and test of the communications suite. The shipbuilder provides necessary electrical power, ventilation, and cooling services, based on established allocations. This approach greatly reduces the Navy's GFI requirements and ECP costs to the shipbuilder and thereby gains the design flexibility necessary for incorporation of up‐to‐date communications technology prior to ship delivery. Since the shipbuilding ECP cost penalties associated with implementing communications technology upgrades are reduced, the turn‐key approach enables performance improvements while providing affordability benefits.The turn‐key approach already has been used successfully for installation of the communications suites on a number of auxiliary and special mission ship classes, and the results have been praised by InSurv. Now proposed for application to surface combatants and amphibious ships, the turn‐key approach is also the subject of an ongoing NavSea Total Quality Leadership (TQL) Process Action Team addressing improvements to the ship design, acquisition, and construction process. By attaining design flexibility and affordable performance benefits, the turn‐key approach serves as a prototype process improvement for integration of the entire range of command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence (C4I) systems.