Page 30: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2012)

30Maritime Reporter & Engineering News Surface Warships 2012 Focusing on common interests in the surface combatant of the future, delegates from around the world gathered January 23-25 in Paris for the IQPC Surface War- ships 2012 conference. Attendees in- cluded naval officers involved in operations, requirements and procure-ment; naval architects and designers, shipbuilders and systems integrators, and even members of the intelligence and re- search communities.The recurring theme was flexible and adaptive designs that can be built and configured in modular fashion by inter- national partnerships.A pre-conference day workshop exam- ined new technologies, materials, con- struction concepts and design tools thatwill be required for successful warship programs moving forward. The new au- tomated design tools can deliver literally thousands of feasible designs in a matterof hours, which allow designers to nar- row in on the most stable, effective and constructible iterations that meet the es-tablished parameters. Non-traditional materials such as aluminum, compositesand even titanium were discussed, and the relative merits of different materials discussed and evaluated by the delegates. The range of required capability for thenext generation of surface combatants ranges from high-level warfighting such as ballistic missile defense to support ofhumanitarian assistance and disaster re-lief.Several of the new designs feature large open spaces for boats and aircraft, bothmanned and unmanned, but also con- tainerized modules for offboard systems, additional berthing, and even medical fa- cilities.Collaborative Efforts A recurring theme during the three-dayworkshop was the importance of collab- oration, both internally and internation- ally. Ships that are best suited to the There will be no more destroyers or frigates ... there will be combat ships; Future focus on cooperative efforts, common adaptable platforms.By Edward Lundquist Navantias Aegis frigate F-101 Álvaro de Bazán. (Photo Credit: Navantia)