System architecture analyses of distributed ship systems offer a practical view of system behavior over all operational states; however, the effectiveness of these analyses can be bound by limited computational performance or capability. Deactivation diagrams provide an alternative view to conventional system architecture descriptions, allowing for rapid analysis of system connectivity and flow based on precomputed single-state system descriptions. This thesis explores the development of system deactivation diagrams and their use in early-stage naval ship system design. Software tools developed in C++ and VBA as part of this research support the Virginia Tech (VT) Naval Ship Design Concept and Requirements Exploration (CandRE) process and tools utilizing the U.S. Navy's Leading-Edge Architecture for Prototyping Systems (LEAPS) framework database. These tools incorporate automated path-finding algorithms developed based on proven network theory and effective computational methods for use in performing ship system deactivation analysis. Data drawn from the results of this approach possess extensible applicability towards studies in naval ship system vulnerability, flow optimization, network architecture, and other system analyses. Supplementary work on interfacing the LEAPS framework libraries with deactivation analyses has demonstrated the capability for generating deactivation diagrams from complex LEAPS ship system databases and paved the way for future incorporation of LEAPS into research work at Virginia Tech. / Master of Science / As the development of new ships becomes more technically complex due to the increased incorporation of redundant and interdependent ship systems, there is a greater need for advanced tools to support future ship system design. Ship operational capabilities rely on the resiliency of onboard systems in all situations, included damaged conditions, and require comprehensive design evaluation to identify weaknesses in system concepts. This thesis details the development of a computational approach to ship system analysis using precomputed deactivation diagrams for early-stage naval ship system design. Deactivation diagrams are a unique way of looking at the interconnectivity of system components and offer a consolidated view of complex network architecture to significantly simplify and accelerate subsequent analyses. Developments in computational algorithms for ship system connectivity presented in this thesis aid in the automated development of deactivation diagrams and support system flow and vulnerability analyses with particular regard to ongoing work on the Virginia Tech (VT) Naval Ship Design Concept and Requirements Exploration (C&RE) process. Additional thesis development work referencing the U.S. Navy’s Leading-Edge Architecture for Prototyping Systems (LEAPS) database framework has demonstrated the capability for generating deactivation diagrams from complex LEAPS ship system databases and paved the way for future incorporation of LEAPS into research work at VT.