Congressional Briefing - June 14, 2007
Submarine Design Resources: Ensuring Future Viability
Speaker: |
John F. Schank |
Date: |
Thursday, June 14, 2007 |
Time: |
9:30 A.M. — 10:30 A.M. |
Location: |
Room: HC-6, U.S. Capitol |
About the Program
For the first time since the design of the first nuclear submarine, the U.S. Navy has no nuclear submarine design program under way, which raises the possibility that design capability could be lost. Such a loss could result in higher costs and delays when the next submarine design is undertaken, as well as risks to system performance and safety. This briefing:
- Estimates and compares the costs and delays of letting design capability erode versus those of alternative means of managing the workload and workforce over the gap in design demand and beyond;
- Recommends the Navy consider stretching out the design of the next submarine class and starting it early, or, if that seems too risky, sustaining design resources at the shipyards, their vendors, and in the Navy itself that exceed those supported by the demand.
About the Speaker
John F. Schank, a Senior Operations Research Analyst based in the RAND Washington DC office, has been involved in a wide range of research issues, including shipbuilding acquisition and industrial base analyses, cost analyses, manpower, personnel, and training issues, and logistics issues at both the service and joint level. He has led or co-led numerous projects for the U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence. In recent years, he has been a principal investigator or key project member for the Joint High-Speed Vessel AoA, the analysis of acquisition options for the DD(X) program, the study of refueling Nimitz-class aircraft carriers versus building new CVN-21 class carriers, and an analysis of methods to sustain nuclear submarine design and production skills in both the U.K and the U.S. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University and a M.S. in Operations Research from the University of Pennsylvania. He has done post-graduate work at the University of California, Los Angeles, and at George Mason University.
RAND Office of Congressional Relations
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See Also:
National Security e-Newsletter
Further Inquiries
For further information about this event, contact the Office of Congressional Relations at ocr@rand.org or call (703) 413-1100 x5395.