Learning from Experience, Volume 1: Lessons from the Submarine Programs of the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia

Abstract

Recognizing the importance of past experiences for successful program management, the Program Executive Officer (PEO) for Submarines from the United States, the Director Submarines of the United Kingdom's Defence Equipment and Support organization, and the Director General Submarines from Australia's Department of Defence asked the RAND Corporation to develop a set of lessons learned from previous submarine programs that could help inform future program managers. The research examined the "Ohio," "Seawolf," and "Virginia" programs of the United States; the "Astute" program of the United Kingdom (UK), and the "Collins" program of Australia. We developed the lessons from those programs through an extensive review of the appropriate literature in addition to numerous interviews with government and private-sector personnel involved in the programs. We were particularly interested in the following: (1) how political, budget, and operational environments influenced decisions made during the program; (2) how operational requirements guided the design and related to the technologies available at the time; (3) the contracting and acquisition processes used during the program; (4) how the private-sector industrial base that designs, builds, and maintains submarines and their systems changed over time; (5) the interactions between the government and naval organizations and the shipbuilding industrial base; (6) how integrated logistics support (ILS) plans were developed during the design and construction of the submarines to support the new submarines after they entered service; and (7) how other issues, both internal to the program and external, influenced decisions and outcomes. The lessons we strive to identify are managerial in nature, not technical. This volume summarizes the lessons across those five programs. Other volumes in the series provide descriptions of the specific case studies and the lessons garnered from them.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2011
Accession Number
ADA552683

Entities

People

  • Frank W. Lacroix
  • Gordon T. Lee
  • John F. Schank
  • Mark V. Arena
  • Robert E. Murphy

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Ballistic Missile Submarines
  • Boats
  • Congress
  • Contractors
  • Engineers
  • Management Personnel
  • Marine Transportation
  • National Security
  • Navy
  • Nuclear Propulsion
  • Personnel Management
  • Procurement
  • Submarine Hulls
  • Submarines
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).
  • Maritime and Naval Warfare Studies