A Human Capital Strategy for Ship Design Acquisition Workforce Improvement: The US Navy's Center for Innovation in Ship Design

Abstract Early in the dark days of World War II, President Roosevelt asked the Navy how it would provide the thousands of ships necessary for the numerous amphibious assault landings that were being planned. At a subsequent high‐level meeting, where John Neidermair, the Technical Director of the Preliminary Design Division at BUSHIPS (Bureau of Ships–a predecessor organization to the Naval Sea Systems Command–NAVSEA), created a concept design sketch of the now famous LSTs. It was this same BUSHIPS Ship Design organization that designed the US Navy Fleet which defeated the Japanese and German navies. And it was the BUSHIPS successor organization, NAVSEA, which designed the 600‐ship Fleet during the President Reagan build‐up of the 1980s and early 1990s. This early stage ship design capability to translate the operators' needs into technically feasible ship concepts and designs is still a core responsibility of NAVSEA. However, NAVSEA is now undertaking the grand challenge of rebuilding the Navy's ship design capabilities which were dramatically downsized during the 1990s. The Human Capital Strategy for Ship Design Acquisition Workforce Improvement is a proven road map for reconstituting the Navy's ship design capabilities and reinvigorating the naval ship design community. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) and NAVSEA made significant progress in this direction by establishing the Navy's Center for Innovation in Ship Design (CISD). CISD is accelerating the career development of ship design leaders, and is paving the way for fully implementing a Human Capital Strategy for Ship Design Acquisition Workforce Improvement.