Exploration. The naval ship design process is initiated with the definition of a mission need and direction to begin concept studies, but signific ant effort precedes this direction.
Exploratory mission analysis provides a description of projected world political/military environments, and maintains a time-phased assessment of the threat and future mission scenarios consistent with defense planning guidance. It determines joint force and naval force structure, identifies future mission deficiencies, and estimates the force level, mix and mission performance required of future ships.