Naval Surface Ship In-service Information Exploitation

The Royal Navy operates a fleet of complex modern warships and submarines each comprising a system of systems often in harsh and potentially volatile environments. The maintenance of surface vessels is primarily undertaken by Babcock and BAe Systems in an alliance with the Ministry of Defence. The Ministry of Defence system engineering lifecycle is known as CADMID, this details the six phases of a projects’ lifecycle from Concept through to Disposal. The “In-Service” phase of a naval vessel will typically constitute 70% of the artefact's through-life cost. During the “In-Service” phase the number and involvement of stakeholders will vary as the vessel cycles through Tasking, Upkeep and Regeneration. The paper considers the key stakeholders and their participation in each cyclical mode. Information to be exploited will be subject to two discrete drivers, firstly the information available for exploitation as a consequence the vessels’ current cyclical mode, secondly, the characteristics of the information source.