Engineering the Environmentally Sound Warship for the Twenty-first Century

The past twenty-five years have been marked by the introduction of marine environmental regulations that have had a profound effect on how ships are designed, built, and operated. Ships being designed and built today must accommodate not only current regulations but anticipate those to be enacted over their thirty to fifty year life cycles. U.S. Chief of Naval Operations, Office of Environmental, Safety and, Health (CNO N45) has articulated a vision for the Environmentally Sound Warship of the Twenty-first Century. This vision incorporates the `Sense of Congress' for a naval ship designed to operate in full compliance with environmental regulations world-wide. The task of the Navy engineering team is to translate this vision into reality; a ship capable of prevailing in time of war and able to conduct operations in all areas of the globe, unencumbered by special procedures for environmental compliance. The key to this warship design is the early integration of environmentally sound principles, materials, and processes into the ship acquisition process. This includes: `cradle to grave' strategies to influence the design and common process: minimization of both hazardous materials and generation of post-shipboard consumer waste during operation, adaptation of integrated systems to reduce the volume of wastes, enhancement of processing efficiency, reduction of manpower requirements, and crew indoctrination in environmental protection.