Recent advances in sensor and weapons systems are significantly increasing the electrical power that is required and the thermal loads that must be dissipated onboard US Navy ships. Thus, design tools and methods must bring detailed consideration of all disciplines early in the design process, including electrical, thermal and controls in addition to the traditional naval architecture and marine engineering. Effective interface of the multiple disciplines demands a collaborative design process. The Electric Ship Research and Development Consortium (ESRDC) has developed the backbone structure of a collaborative design environment with the goal of bringing together many disciplines early in the ship design process. This design environment brings many innovations, especially in the arena of simultaneous collaborative design. This paper describes the Smart Ship System Design (S3D) environment as developed to date, along with overall and discipline-specific visions of implementation of the environment in ship design.