Engineering the Total Ship (ETS) 2008, "Enabling Affordable Ships for 21st Century Needs", explores the engineering aspects of the interrelationships of capability and affordability of the systems composing the sea-based operations of the Naval force as an element of joint, allied, and coalition forces. Symposia in this series are a biennial forum sponsored by the American Society of Naval Engineers and supported by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Ships and the Naval Sea Systems Command. The past five symposiums were ETS 1998, ETS 2000, ETS 2002, ETS 2004, and ETS 2006. They established a technical forum for dialogue among engineers, researchers, acquisition officials, and managers in government and industry to address evolving and emergent issues in the engineering and operation of ships.

ETS 2008 will continue and expand upon the tradition of an open technical forum for the interdisciplinary exchange of information among government and industry personnel engaged in supporting the Navy; including ships and everything that goes with them. Presenters and attendees will include members of the international Naval engineering community.

ETS 2008 will have invited papers, peer reviewed technical papers and additional papers presented as poster sessions.

The papers presented during ETS 2008 will emphasize the role of systems engineering in making the complex trade-offs necessary to define, construct, and sustain the ships that effectively contribute to force warfare. The three-day symposia event will consist of five technical sessions, a Cornerstone Panel, and a half day Capstone Panel. ETS 2008 will also include a half-day session facilitated by the Naval Postgraduate School addressing such topics as:

• Cost Engineering as a Technical Discipline;
• Stewardship of Systems Engineering Expertise;
• Implementing System of Systems engineering; and
• the Role of Operations Analysis in Systems Engineering.

We look forward to this exciting event again and we hope you can participate or join us in September 2008.