'Third way' captures commercial cost base in naval auxiliary

摘要

Many navies and procurement executives look enviously at the comparatively low initial cost of commercial tonnage being designed, built, and delivered quickly, and apparently offering a useful and immediate capability. Commercial ships are designed to known and established rules and standards and within known regulatory frameworks. Taking commercial ships from trade is one potential solution but this often leads to a minimum capability and considerable modification costs. As David Bricknell and Per-Egil Vedlog of Rolls-Royce Marine explained at the RINA Warship 2007 conference in Bath, UK, patching into the commercial supply chain to deliver fully capable naval auxiliaries seems initially attractive, but once overlaid with the naval procurement process, standards, rules, and regulations, it quickly becomes a bespoke procurement for the shipyard, incurring the usual high costs and risks of the unknown.