In the old days, ship designers sat at big angled desks and used pencil and paper to design compartments. In those days we built plenty of ships and had plenty of people wanting to be ship designers (because it gave them something to do).
CAD/CAM should reduce the risk as simulations can performed.
More significantly, in the old days we had people who could take decisions, this is not true today. Passing the buck seems to be considered an acceptable alternative to competent decision making. This is true not just in the MOD, but throughout the public sector and in many parts of the business world too.