BMT’s Design Evaluation Database informs destroyer decision

BMT Defence Services (Australia) has used its Design Evaluation Database (DED) application to support Australia's next-generation Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) programme.

BMT's DED was used extensively to assess the platform systems engineering aspects of the two competing AWD designs. It helped to inform and enable the Australian Department of Defence to select the winning design, Navantia's F100.

First developed in 2005, following the identification by BMT Defence Services (Australia) of a need for design and risk management software on the RAN's MV DELOS conversion project, the DED has since been upgraded to version 2.0 and used across a number of high-profile Australian projects.

The DED enables design, operational, safety, programme and cost risks to be captured, assessed to a common baseline, and tracked with respect to achieving satisfactory closure by all stakeholders. It can also be rolled over into the in-service phase of any platform to enable continuing through-life management of risk and historical traceability.

The DED has been structured for flexibility, being readily adaptable to any project work breakdown structure and evaluation criteria to support the assessment of individual project risks associated with any aspects of a specific project and can provide an overall risk summary and action list at any time.

Being web-based, the DED can be used simultaneously by a number of reviewers anywhere in the world. With the AWD assessment project, this involved personnel at BMT Defence Services (Australia) in Melbourne, BMT Defence Services in Bath in the UK, the Australian Department of Defence in Canberra and the AWD Systems Centre in Adelaide.

"BMT's DED is an advanced application, but it's also intuitive and user-friendly for whoever uses it, and wherever they're based," says Sam Dorling, Information Services Manager at BMT Defence Services.

"The DED enabled us to co-ordinate our evaluation work, involve many reviewers in several locations and provide a fast, efficient and effective service for our customer," says Nathan Harding, Managing Director of BMT Defence Services (Australia). "We were able to consolidate everyone's observations and comments in a single database, where they could be viewed instantly by other reviewers, and this greatly benefited the project and whole AWD programme."