COST ANALYSIS FOR OPERATIONAL AND SYSTEM LEVEL CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE ELECTROMAGNETIC RAILGUN INTEGRATED ON AN AMPHIBIOUS PLATFORM

Due to the nature of amphibious operations, the Navy’s landing platform dock (LPD) amphibious ship is required to remain within close distance of the shore, which poses a threat to the ship and its supported elements such as a Marine Expeditionary Unit. To resolve this issue, this thesis investigates outfitting the LPD-17 with an electromagnetic railgun (EMRG), which is a high-velocity weapon that can fire projectiles at targets at ranges of up to 100 nautical miles by utilizing electromagnetic propulsion rather than traditional propellants. This EMRG concept in the amphibious fleet provides offensive capability in the form of Naval Surface Fire Support (NSFS) and a defensive capability against surface threats, missiles, and other airborne threats. Because the railgun can provide both offensive and defensive capabilities, there is a potential increase in operational effectiveness of amphibious ships conducting air defense and NSFS. This thesis contains a cost estimate of the railgun integration and a cost effectiveness analysis, from both operational and system perspectives, that quantifies the impact of integrating the railgun onto an amphibious platform. The cost estimate for the EMRG is FY20 $134.66M, given a 32 MJ railgun. From an operational effectiveness perspective, hit probability of air targets has a greater impact on performance than cycle time, and when balancing cost versus effectiveness, a 10 MJ railgun is preferred to a 32 MJ railgun.