DEVELOPMENT AND SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF A MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR MINE COUNTERMEASURE VESSELS IN THE EARLY DESIGN STAGE

With the evolving requirements of future mine countermeasure (MCM) operations, the operational capabilities of next-generation platforms must be sufficiently flexible to meet these changing needs. As the U.S. Navy's current and leading platform solutions to address rising threats continually evolve, their operational capabilities are either directly derived from or influenced by the platforms' architectural design parameters. Because of this mapping, traditional approaches of configuring operational systems around a vessel's architectural design may have limited flexibility to accommodate design revisions and may make such revisions costly and time consuming. Approaches centered around Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and digital engineering have seen success as simulation and modeling tools to better link architectural vessel designs to operational requirements of various types of vessels. To further extend on the MBSE approach to MCM operational requirements, this thesis considers steps necessary to establish a relationship between MCM capabilities and platform design parameters. This thesis explores potential related trade-offs by conducting a sensitivity study of the MCM vessel design parameters and their effects on the operational capabilities of the vessel. Such an approach can serve as the basis for a methodology influencing early-stage vessel design choices, as dictated by mission operational requirements.