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The launch and recovery of equipment such as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) is a critical task that defines the operability limits of many marine operations. This paper considers the analysis of control systems that are designed to maximize the operability limits for launch and recovery of a ROV from a small unmanned surface vessel (USV). We use numerical simulation for the analysis, where the method combines recent approaches for wave compensating dynamic positioning, active heave compensation, and positioning control of the ROV with multi-body dynamic simulation of the surface vessel and ROV, including hydrodynamic forces and dynamic interactions from wires that depend on the ROV depth and moonpool. The results show that the choice of control algorithms and their tuning parameters has a significant effect on the system's operability, and should be carefully designed and tuned to optimize the operability limits for any given sea state, weather and operational setup. The results show that numerical analysis with a system's simulation is an effective tool to verify operability and its sensitivity to various parameters for the given ROV recovery application. • The choice of ROV control system, unmanned surface vessel dynamic positioning and active heave compensation control algorithms and their tuning parameters has a significant effect on the system's operability. • Control systems should be carefully designed and tuned to optimize the operability limits for any given sea state, weather and operational setup. • A numerical simulation model for ROV recovery in the moonpool of a small USV is presented, validated and used in analyzing operability. • Numerical system simulation that integrates all physical elements and control systems is an effective method to verify operability from a systems perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]