Naval ship survivability
Research Project
- Start Date:
- 28 October, 2011
- Project Status:
- Active
DSTO provides the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) with advice on ship survivability and how to increase it.
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- Fire fighting foam being used to fight a fire
The survivability of a ship is a combination of three elements:
- Susceptibility - the likelihood of the ship being detected and hit by a weapon
- Vulnerability - the ability to withstand damage
- Recoverability - the ability to control damage and recover all or part of its capabilities
Combining all three of these elements, DSTO research informs the RAN with respect to:
- enhancing war-fighting effectiveness and operational capability
- becoming a smart buyer of new equipment
- reducing platform vulnerability
- enhancing the ability of the recovery processes to restore capability
Vulnerability
To investigate the effects of weapons on naval vessels, DSTO conducts full-scale live fire testing of naval vessels, as well as testing of subsystems such as bulkhead panels and ballistic protection systems. Reduced-scale experimentation is also performed to investigate damage mechanisms and potential protective measures.
Much of this work is conducted at specialised field experimental sites located in Victoria, including the DSTO Underwater Experimental Test Facility and above ground test facilities located on ADF test ranges.
When faced with time, cost or environmental constraints, DSTO also model vulnerability via a range of suitable predictive and simulation capabilities.
Recoverability
DSTO’s recoverability research provides the RAN with advice on the measures required to control damage from military events (e.g. missile strike) or non military events (e.g. grounding), crew safety, and the processes to be undertaken to restore platform capability after damage.
For example, DSTO undertakes damage control research into the behaviour and the spread of fire and smoke in naval platforms, which involves the use of decommissioned RAN ships or experimental buildings for fullscale ‘real life’ testing. Investigations include ‘water mist’ systems, which use fine water droplets produced from advanced sprinkler heads, and ‘gaseous’ systems such as carbon dioxide, halocarbon systems and foam systems.
DSTO’s work to improve evacuation systems has the potential to increase crew survivability in damage scenarios, ranging from evacuation from a damaged section to abandonment of a naval vessel. The performance of evacuation systems is important to lead non naval personnel to safety in emergency situations (particularly in amphibious ships).
Studies have evaluated several commercial evacuation technologies in a range of typical damage control conditions including photoluminescent and electroluminescent signage, high intensity light emitting diodes, reflective signage and tactile systems.
More details about DSTO's research is available in the DSTO support to naval ship survivability fact sheet.
