_{IN THE “TRADITIONAL” SHIP ACQUISITION PROCESS THE TECHNICAL INPUTS/CONSTRAINS (SHIP DESIGN, TECHNOLOGY BASE AND LIMITS, COST INFORMATION, ETC.) AND OPERATIONAL NEEDS/REQUIREMENTS (SCENARIOS, THREATS AND MISSION EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS) ARE INVESTIGATED IN DIFFERENT PHASES OF THE DESIGN AND ARE EXAMINED OFTEN BY SEPARATE TEAMS; IN OTHER WORDS, THEY ARE ANALYSED IN A SEQUENTIAL MANNER (DESIGN SPIRAL) BY MEANS OF CONCURRENT ENGINEERING APPROACH; THIS IS WHAT CAN BE CALLED “CLASSICAL” APPROACH. IN ORDER TO PROVIDE A WELL ORGANIZED FRAMEWORK IN WHICH SHIP DESIGN TOPICS MEET OPERATIONAL ASPECTS A “DASHBOARD” HAS BEEN SETUP. IN THIS CONTEXT A SHIP KNOWLEDGE BASED FRAMEWORK, CHARACTERIZED BY APPLYING THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE VARIOUS FIELDS OF NAVAL ARCHITECTURE AND MARINE ENGINEERING, HAS BEEN CREATED IN ORDER TO SYNTHESIZE A SHIP DESIGN, WHICH MEETS REQUIREMENTS, REPRESENTING A BALANCED SOLUTION IN TERMS OF WEIGHTS, AREAS, VOLUMES, STABILITY AND POWER. ALSO THE VARIOUS SUBSYSTEMS OF THE COMBAT SYSTEM (C/S) ARE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT, NOT ONLY BECAUSE OF THEIR IMPACT IN TERMS OF WEIGHTS, AREAS, VOLUMES AND CREW BUT ALSO BECAUSE THEIR PERFORMANCES ARE STRONGLY RELATED TO FINAL INTEGRATION AND THE WHOLE WARSHIP CHARACTERISTICS. THIS FRAMEWORK IS CALLED SHIP SYNTHESIS MODEL (SSM) AND CONSISTS IN A SET OF LOGICALLY–INTEGRATED, SEQUENCED PARAMETRIC EQUATIONS AND REGRESSIONS SUPPORTING THE ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVES (AOA) PROCESS CHARACTERIZING THE FIRST PART OF THE SHIP ACQUISITION PHASE.}