Military Airframe Acquisition Costs

Military Airframe Acquisition Costs PDF Author: Cynthia R. Cook
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society
ISBN: 9780833030238
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
During the past couple of decades, many segments of U.S. industry have benefited from introducing new manufacturing techniques that save money by increasing efficiency and reducing overhead. Would U.S. military aircraft manufacturing benefit from these techniques as well? This report examines the package of new tools and techniques known as lean production to see if it would enable aircraft manufacturers to produce new weapon systems at costs below those predicted by historical cost estimating models. The authors give a broad overview of what lean is and what it can and cannot accomplish in cutting manufacturing costs. They also detail results of industry efforts in this regard, including specific examples and averages of claimed cost savings. The authors conclude by identifying areas where companies need to push harder in lean implementation and what the Defense Department can do to encourage this.

Military Airframe Acquisition Costs

Military Airframe Acquisition Costs PDF Author: Cynthia R. Cook
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society
ISBN: 9780833030238
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Get Book Here

Book Description
During the past couple of decades, many segments of U.S. industry have benefited from introducing new manufacturing techniques that save money by increasing efficiency and reducing overhead. Would U.S. military aircraft manufacturing benefit from these techniques as well? This report examines the package of new tools and techniques known as lean production to see if it would enable aircraft manufacturers to produce new weapon systems at costs below those predicted by historical cost estimating models. The authors give a broad overview of what lean is and what it can and cannot accomplish in cutting manufacturing costs. They also detail results of industry efforts in this regard, including specific examples and averages of claimed cost savings. The authors conclude by identifying areas where companies need to push harder in lean implementation and what the Defense Department can do to encourage this.

Military Airframe Costs

Military Airframe Costs PDF Author: Obaid Younossi
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 9780833030368
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 141

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Book Description
In recent years, a number of attempts have been made to estimate the cost of future weapon systems toward the goal of optimizing acquisition policy. This report focuses specifically on the effects of material mix, manufacturing techniques, and geometric part complexity on the cost of military airframes. It begins by offering background information on those materials that are most critical to airframe manufacture and on the relative advantages of both traditional and evolving part fabrication techniques. It then proceeds to a quantitative analysis of the cost implications of various materials and manufacturing techniques on airframe production, drawing both from an industry survey and from analysis of industry data. The data thus derived are then integrated with those of a comprehensive historical database. The report concludes that composites, while offering a number of advantages over metals in airframe manufacture, are generally associated with higher costs across a range of categories. At the same time, it concludes that while new manufacturing technologies hold the potential to diminish airframe manufacturing costs, the increased airframe complexity of future fighter aircraft may well offset this advantage. The report recommends that cost analysts remain abreast of changes in industry practice so that they may more accurately gauge the potential effects of such changes on future airframe costs.

Military Airframe Acquisition Costs. The Effects of Lean Manufacturing

Military Airframe Acquisition Costs. The Effects of Lean Manufacturing PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This report is part of a project responding to a call by the U.S. Air Force to update cost estimating methodologies for new weapons systems-in particular, fighter aircraft. The Air Force was concerned that Cost Estimating Relationships (CERs) based on older aircraft did not adequately reflect the acquisition and manufacturing environment within which a new fighter, such as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) would be produced. This report is one of a series, all of which address some aspect of how to incorporate the new DoD acquisition and manufacturing environments into historical cost estimating relationships or methodologies (See Younossi, Graser, and Kennedy, 2001; Lorell and Graser, 2001). Using the CER methodology for example, the cost of a future aircraft is estimated as a function of its physical or characteristics or other program variables, using a series of equations wherein the performance and program variables are inputs, and cost or labor hours are the outputs. To create these equations, actual costs (or labor hours) to produce previous aircraft are collected and used as the dependent variables in statistical regression analysis. Explanatory variables typically include such factors as cumulative production quantity, annual production rate, such aircraft characteristics as weight and speed, and others. The resulting equations are referred to as "cost estimating relationships," or CERs. Obviously, the ability of these equations to forecast future systems costs hinges on how well past performance is a predictor of the future.

Competition and Innovation in the U.S. Fixed-Wing Military Aircraft Industry

Competition and Innovation in the U.S. Fixed-Wing Military Aircraft Industry PDF Author: John Birkler
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833036017
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 135

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Book Description
Assess prospects for innovation and competition in the military combat-aircraft industry. o

U.S. Military Forces in FY 2020

U.S. Military Forces in FY 2020 PDF Author: Mark F. Cancian
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442281448
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
Annually, CSIS senior adviser Mark Cancian publishes a series of papers on U.S. military forces—their composition, new initiatives, long-term trends, and challenges. The overall theme of this year’s report is the struggle to align forces and strategy because of budget tradeoffs that even defense buildups must make, unrelenting operational demands that stress forces and prevent force structure reductions, and legacy programs whose smooth operations and strong constituencies inhibit rapid change. This report takes a deeper look at the strategic and budget context, the military services, special operations forces, DOD civilians and contractors, and non-DOD national security organizations in the FY 2020 budget.

Global Defense Procurement and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter

Global Defense Procurement and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter PDF Author: Bert Chapman
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030013677
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
This book analyzes the development and evolution of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a multinational aircraft endeavor involving the U.S. and many of its allies. The author provides a historical overview of jet fighter aircraft, discussing the different generations of these planes and their technical characteristics, as well as an outline of emerging international geopolitical and security trends the F-35 may see combat in. By examining the role of defense industries, domestic politics, and governmental oversight of the Joint Strike Fighter in various countries, the author concludes that this aircraft will be deployed in most of these countries to replace their aging jet fighter fleets and combat potential military aggression from China, Russia, and other revisionist international powers.

Commonality in Military Equipment

Commonality in Military Equipment PDF Author: Thomas Held
Publisher: RAND Corporation
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
To inform the U.S. Army's decisionmaking process surrounding commonality in military equipment, RAND was asked to assess the advantages and disadvantages of commonality and how to best manage their trade-offs. This report presents analyses of the effects of commonality on costs, capabilities, and training and offers a decisionmaking aid that designers, developers, and procurers could use to inform their decisions about commonality.

U.S. Military Forces in FY 2021

U.S. Military Forces in FY 2021 PDF Author: Mark F. Cancian
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538140365
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 129

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Book Description
CSIS senior adviser Mark Cancian annually produces a series of white papers on U.S. military forces, including their composition, new initiatives, long-term trends, and challenges. This report is a compilation of these papers and takes a deep look at each of the military services, the new Space Force, special operations forces, DOD civilians, and contractors in the FY 2021 budget. This report further includes a foreword regarding how the Biden administration might approach decisions facing the military forces, drawing on insights from the individual chapters.

Joint Vision 2020

Joint Vision 2020 PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Command and control systems
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description
Joint Vision 2020 is the conceptual template for how we will channel the vitality of our people and leverage technological opportunities to achieve new levels of effectiveness in joint warfighting.

Historical Cost Growth of Completed Weapon System Programs

Historical Cost Growth of Completed Weapon System Programs PDF Author: Mark V. Arena
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833039253
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 74

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Book Description
This report is one of a series from a RAND Project AIR FORCE project, "The Cost of Future Military Aircraft: Historical Cost Estimating Relationships and Cost Reduction Initiatives." The purpose of the project is to improve the tools used to estimate the costs of future weapon systems. It focuses on how recent technical, management, and government policy changes affect cost. This report focuses on the accuracy of cost estimates. For our analysis, we used a very specific sample of Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) data, namely only programs that are complete or are nearly so. The analysis indicates a systematic bias toward underestimating the costs and substantial uncertainty in estimating the final cost of a weapon system. In contrast to the previous literature, the cost growth was higher than previously observed. We also found few correlations with cost growth, but observed that programs with longer duration had greater cost growth and electronics programs tended to have lower cost growth. Although there were some differences in the mean cost growth factors among the military departments, the differences were not statistically significant. While newer programs appear to have lower cost growth, this trend appears to be due to factors other than acquisition policies.