AEGIS Platforms: Using KVA Analysis to Assess Open Architecture in Sustaining Engineering

The purpose of this thesis is to estimate the potential performance improvement in sustaining engineering SE when an Open Architecture OA approach to system development is used. Its basis is that in Integrated Warfare Systems IWS acquisition, eighty percent of total life-cycle costs occur during the Operation and Support phase. This statistic demonstrates the necessity of measuring how the OA approach will affect software upgrade and maintenance process for the AEGIS IWS Life Cycle. Using the OA approach, advances in distance support and monitoring, and maintenance free operating periods are possible, and this is significant in supporting the need to reduce costs and manpower while improving performance. To estimate the potential Return on Investment ROI that an OA approach might enable for SE in the form of software maintenance and upgrade, this thesis will apply the Knowledge Value Added KVA methodology to establish the baseline, As Is, configuration of the current solutions in AEGIS. The KVA analysis will yield the ROIs and the current models for the approach to software maintenance and upgrade. Based on the assumptions of OA design for original system development, new approaches to distance and maintenance and monitoring will be explored in To Be solutions, and the ROIs will be estimated. The To Be solutions are rooted in the assumptions of MFOP and ARCI, and the results indicate that these solutions yield a potential improvement of 720 and a cost saving of 365,104.63 over the current methodology for just one ship. For all ships using AEGIS, ROI improves by 71,967 with a cost savings of 26,543,824.56. The conclusion is that OA enables extension of these best practice approaches to AEGIS maintenance and upgrade solutions.