DESIGN PRIORITIZATION STUDY FOR A SEMI-SUBMERSIBLE NAVAL SHIP BASED ON FAST DECISION METHOD

Recently, number of countries included various types of special operations crafts to their navies. One type of these crafts is called semi-submersible naval ship, which utilizes superior properties of a submarine and a surface ship. This paper presents general characteristic design features of these type of ships. Additionally, a design prioritization study based on a Fast-Decision survey was carried to determine the importance of different design features of such ships. Survey participants were chosen from experienced naval officers who served the Navy. The responses are analyzed and presented with bar charts which shows the order of importance of the different design parameters. Results reveals that the most important operational tasks for a semi-submersible naval ship are naval special operations capability and ability to infiltrate, dodge and operate in hostile waters while the most important functional features are high maneuverability in surface operations and low acoustic detectability in underwater operations. In addition, it appears that the size of the control room and engine room is more important than the ship's ability to be transported by another vehicle. The authors are intended to make conceptual designs for semi-submersible naval ships and investigate their hydrodynamic features in future studies.