Design of complex naval installations and the limitations of equipment standards

This paper focuses on cost effective integration of commercially available equipment and infrastructure into a military maritime environment assuring performance, robustness, safety and continuity. The rationale behind settled standards is put in todays perspective and an assessment of the possible EM interactions of equipment in a military environment is made. It is shown that the strict use of military equipment standards is a pitfall in procurement that makes naval shipbuilding unnecessarily expensive and might give a false presumption of low risk for EMC. Some investigated aspects of the effects of a military naval environment on civil COTS equipment show that a careful design with properly engineered mitigation measures can be an alternative for the hardening and compliance requiring for all integrated equipment.