A Combined (USN/USCG) Patrol Corvette (CPCX)

A Systems Engineering approach to the preliminary design of a combined-usage (USN/USCG) corvette is presented. The design responds to recognition that as lawbreakers become more sophisticated and heavily-armed, the Coast Guard's law enforcement operations become more similar to warfare; and at the same time, the Navy's increasing involvement in Operations Other than War (OOW), such as sanction enforcement and humanitarian operations, is becoming more like traditional law enforcement operations. The design, responding to this situation, pursues two variants of a single basic ship -- one with a Coast Guard payload and one with a Navy combat payload. Major objectives of the design are (1) cost savings by permitting larger numbers of the ship to be built than either service, alone, would need, with a high degree of commonality between the two variants and (2) provision of the ability to rapidly reconfigure the Coast Guard variant into the Navy variant when there is an expectation of increased combatant ship needs. Mission analysis, payload selection, development of measures of effectiveness and analysis of Naval Architecture features, as well as other design factors, are addressed.Naval Postgraduate School Monterey CA Dept of Mechanical Engineering is the author of 'A Combined (USN/USCG) Patrol Corvette (CPCX)' with ISBN 9781423577287 and ISBN 1423577280.