Accession Number:

AD1122550

Title:

Acquisition Policy, Cost Growth, and Cancellations of Major Defense Acquisition Programs

Descriptive Note:

[Technical Report, Technical Report]

Corporate Author:

INSTITUTE FOR DEFENSE ANALYSES ALEXANDRIA VA

Personal Author(s):

• McNicol, David L.

Report Date:

2018-09-01

Pagination or Media Count:

166

Abstract:

The Department of Defense DoD acquisition enterprise as a whole buys severalmillion different products. Some items weapon systems, automated information systemsrequire large development efforts before there is an end item to buy, while other items arein effect bought from a catalog and shipped directly to a DoD organization e.g., ahospital or to a DoD supply depot.This study is concerned only with major defense acquisition programs MDAPs. Itis further confined to acquisition costs, which is a term of art defined as the sum ofResearch, Development, Test and Evaluation RDT and E funding and procurementfunding that is, the cost of buying the system once it has been developed. Procurementcost is typically although not invariably on the order of five times RDT and E cost. As arough rule of thumb, acquisition cost for the portfolio of MDAPs in development orprocurement at a point in time ranges from 10 percent to 20 percent of total DoD funding.

Descriptors:

• test and evaluation
• information systems
• military acquisition
• surface to air missiles
• network protocols
• information retrieval
• national security
• databases
• defense systems
• air force
• commerce
• computer programming
• contracts
• cost analysis
• cost reductions
• governments
• statistical analysis
• department of defense
• law
• military history

Subject Categories:

• Economics and Cost Analysis
• Logistics, Military Facilities and Supplies

Distribution Statement:

[A, Approved For Public Release]