Alternative means of satisfying the high bandwidth and protected communications requirements for New Construction Naval Surface Ships in the midst of conflicting reduced radar cross section (RCS) requirements were investigated using the systems engineering process. Various antenna, ranging from parabolic dish antennas to Luneberg lens antennas to phased array antennas, and feed and amplifier combinations were considered to provide a dual-band Super High Frequency (SHF) and Extremely High Frequency (EHF) Satellite Communications (SATCOM) Terminal (SEST). Through the design of this hypothetical system, the various stages of the systems engineering process are considered-- definition of need, conceptual design, preliminary system design, production and installation, and utilization and support. Sample tasks are performed at each stage in the process (e.g., a system performance specification is prepared in the advanced system planning stage). The set of technical solutions that remained in the preliminary design phase are compared based on life cycle costs. Two approaches are recommended -- one assuming lowest life cycle cost has highest priority and one assuming that the ability to communicate simultaneously on SHF and EHF has highest priority.

Master of Science