Integrated topside design is adesign approach used bymilitary ship and ship equipment designers to overcome the challenges of effectively operating shipboardantenna systems and equipment susceptible toelectromagnetic fields in the high electromagnetic environment of a warship's topside. The approach primarily uses the well-understood physics ofelectromagnetism to simulate the topside environment before the equipment is tested for real.
Advances in ship design to accommodate ever more high power antenna systems, numbers of parasiticre-radiating metallic structures (such as cranes and masts) and a requirement to have more sensitivesensors forlittoral operations has led to a need for greater consideration of the operation of equipment prior to ship build or prior to equipment deployment. Whilst this can be done post-deployment using measurement teams, using a modelling andsimulation approach early in the ship design is more cost-effective than making corrections after the ship is built, and so is the preferred option for several of the world's advancednavies.