
Learning from Experience, Volume 2: Lessons from the U.S. The Virginia Class Submarine Program: A Case Study. Defense Acquisitions: Assessment of Selected Weapon Programs Report. The identification of a list of feasible architecture evaluation metrics was an added benefit of the effort. In summary, the work on the Virginia class submarine prompted a change in the traditional architectural approach used in the sonar community to design submarine sonar and validated the cost savings in both research and development (R&D) and in component costs when transitioning from proprietary interfaces to industry standard interfaces. These best practices included stringent design trades to keep costs under control, careful consideration of technical maturity of components, and the importance of program stability. These are discussed by Schank (2011), GAO (2008), and General Dynamics (2002). The Virginia class submarine acquisition exhibited other best practices.

Percentage of operational functions which are automated.Percentage of HW and SW technology known.Percentage of vendors and subcontractors known.Physical familiarity (with other systems).


#Virginia class submarine berthing software
Software (SW) commonality (e.g., the number of unique SW packages implemented, languages, compilers, average SW instantiations, and unique standards implemented).Hardware (HW) commonality (e.g., the number of unique line replaceable units, fasteners, cables, and unique standards implemented).Physical commonality (within the system).The Virginia class submarine sonar system architecture has improved modularity, commonality, standardization, and reliability, maintainability and testability (RMT) over historical sonar systems.īased on the new architectural approach architectural approach and the success of the transition, system architecture experts developed an initial set of architecture evaluation metrics: The lead ship of the program, Virginia, reduced the number of historically procured parts for nuclear submarines by 60% with the use of standardization. The Virginia class submarine system design represented a transition to COTS-based parts and initiated a global change in architectural approaches adopted by the sonar community. However, in the mid-1990s, the United States government transitioned to the use of commercially developed products - or commercial off the shelf (COTS) products - as a cost-saving measure to reduce the escalating costs associated with proprietary-based research and development. Prior to the Virginia class submarine, sonar systems were comprised of proprietary components and interfaces. 2 Architectural Approach: Standardization.
