Multi- Purpose Vessels
Navy mission requirements have become less focused and as a
result, vessels have been designed with multiple
capabilities. As a result, the navy is more flexible at any
given time at the expense of capital and operating costs.
By their nature multipurpose vessel designs incorporate
performance penalties that are imposed by their various
different requirements. It can be argued, that most vessels
under typical missions perform only one main mission
function. For example, during the Gulf War, the primary use
of warships was surface to surface bombardment. Most
vessels were equipped and manned to perform many other
functions such as anti-submarine and surface-to-air
warfare, but the capabilities were never used.