Report
Benchmarking Schedules for Major Defense Acquisition Programs
Describes an approach for evaluating the schedule plans for major defense acquisition programs that have recently entered the Air Force portfolio.
Apr 11, 2018
Report
Assessing Bid Protests of U.S. Department of Defense Procurements: Identifying Issues, Trends, and Drivers
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017 called for a study of "the prevalence and impact of bid protests on DoD acquisitions," including the systematic collection and analysis of information on their characteristics and outcomes.
Jan 4, 2018
Report
Joint Precision Approach and Landing System Nunn-McCurdy Breach Root Cause Analysis and Portfolio Assessment Metrics for DoD Weapons Systems, Volume 8
The authors examine the Joint Precision Approach and Landing System Inc. 1A Nunn-McCurdy breach and document a methodology that can assess and summarize the overall performance of an acquisition portfolio at a point in time and over several years.
Oct 23, 2015
Report
Australia's Naval Shipbuilding Enterprise: Preparing for the 21st Century
RAND researchers explore the feasibility of Australia sustaining a domestic naval shipbuilding industry compared with buying ships from foreign shipbuilders. The authors outline the complex consequences and trade-offs of both options.
Apr 15, 2015
Report
Acquisition of Space Systems, Volume 7: Past Problems and Future Challenges
As Department of Defense plans for the next-generation space systems in an increasingly challenging fiscal and security environment, it is important to apply lessons learned from past space acquisition, which had experienced many difficulties.
Mar 30, 2015
Report
Keeping Major Naval Ship Acquisitions on Course: Key Considerations for Managing Australia's SEA 5000 Future Frigate Program
This study provides a program overview of acquisition options available for the Commonwealth of Australia's next generation naval surface combatant and identifies internal and external factors that can influence a major ship acquisition program.
Dec 22, 2014
Tool
Identifying Acquisition Framing Assumptions Through Structured Deliberation
This report documents the structured process that was developed to help project teams identify acquisition framing assumptions, which are useful in defining and tracking key program assumptions throughout the life of an acquisition program.
Dec 4, 2014
Report
Management Perspectives Pertaining to Root Cause Analyses of Nunn-McCurdy Breaches, Volume 6: Contractor Motivations and Anticipating Breaches
The authors analyze what motivates defense contractors to determine if better incentives exist to the ones now used, and analyze major defense acquisition programs to see if it is possible to identify programs that might incur a Nunn-McCurdy breach.
Oct 8, 2014
Report
DoD and Commercial Advanced Waveform Developments and Programs with Multiple Nunn-McCurdy Breaches, Volume 5
Compares aspects of the Joint Tactical Radio System network domain program with similar elements for the commercial long-term evolution waveform and analyzes acquisition programs that have repeatedly exceeded certain cost thresholds.
Aug 25, 2014
Journal Article
Strengthening the Shipbuilding Industry
To prevent atrophy in a fiscally challenged environment, the U.S. Navy and ship manufacturers will need to adopt a set of broad management strategies.
Dec 1, 2013
Report
Implications of an Air Force Budget Downturn on the Aircraft Industrial Base: An Exploratory Analysis
The U.S. Air Force is facing a number of challenges as a result of the current defense budget downturn. RAND examined the challenge of modernizing the Air Force's aircraft fleet while trying to sustain the industrial base with limited funding.
Nov 1, 2013
Tool
An Excel Tool to Assess Acquisition Program Risk
Presents the users' manual for the Assessor Tool, an Excel information-based risk tool designed to assist the U.S. Department of Defense acquisition community in assessing weapon systems in accordance with the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act.
Oct 31, 2013
Report
A Risk Assessment Methodology and Excel Tool for Acquisition Programs
Describes the Assessor Tool, an Excel information-based risk tool designed to assist the U.S. Department of Defense acquisition community in assessing weapon systems integration risk in accordance with the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act.
Oct 31, 2013
Report
Management Perspectives Pertaining to Root Cause Analyses of Nunn-McCurdy Breaches, Volume 4: Program Manager Tenure, Oversight of Acquisition Category II Programs, and Framing Assumptions
Concerned with cost overruns in programs that breached Nunn-McCurdy thresholds, Congress directed investigation of the root causes of these overruns, and the authors examine various possible contributors to these breaches.
Oct 3, 2013
Research Brief
Australia's Domestic Submarine Design Capabilities: Options for the Future Submarine
To design a new naval submarine domestically, Australia's industry and Government will need about 1,000 skilled draftsmen and engineers. Cultivating this workforce could take 15-20 years; partnering with foreign designers could expedite the process.
Dec 22, 2011
Report
Australia's Submarine Design Capabilities and Capacities: Challenges and Options for the Future Submarine
Assesses the domestic engineering and design skills that Australian industry and government will need to design a new submarine, identifies the skills they currently possess, and evaluates how best to fill any gaps between the two.
Dec 15, 2011
Report
Learning from Experience: Volume II: Lessons from the U.S. Navy's Ohio, Seawolf, and Virginia Submarine Programs
This volume presents an overview of lessons learned from three U.S. Navy submarine programs that could help inform future program managers.
Nov 16, 2011
Report
Learning from Experience: Volume III: Lessons from the United Kingdom's Astute Submarine Program
This volume presents a set of lessons learned from the United Kingdom's Astute submarine program that could help inform future program managers.
Nov 16, 2011
Report
Learning from Experience: Volume I: Lessons from the Submarine Programs of the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia
Presents an overview of lessons learned from five submarine programs in three countries -- the UK's Astute program; the U.S. Navy's Ohio, Seawolf, and Virginia programs; and Australia's Collins program.
Nov 16, 2011
Report
Learning from Experience: Volume IV: Lessons from Australia's Collins Submarine Program
This volume presents a set of lessons learned from Australia's Collins submarine program that could help inform future program managers.
Nov 16, 2011
Report
Are Ships Different? Policies and Procedures for the Acquisition of Ship Programs
The policies and procedures established by the Department of Defense for program management and oversight can be tailored to meet the unique needs of ship acquisition programs without compromising oversight.
Nov 3, 2011
Report
Changing Aircraft Carrier Procurement Schedules: Effects That a Five-Year Procurement Cycle Would Have on Cost, Availability, and Shipyard Manpower and Workload
Proposed changes to the Navy's aircraft carrier acquisition program will have little impact in the short term. Later, the force structure and the probability of meeting deployment goals shrink, along with the Navy's ability to grow the fleet.
Mar 21, 2011
Report
Sustaining Key Skills in the UK Military Aircraft Industry
This monograph reports on RAND Europe's support to the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence's Fixed Wing Sector Strategy Board towards development of a strategy and sustainment plan for the military fixed wing sector.
Jan 31, 2011
Research Brief
Sustaining Key Skills in the United Kingdom's Military Aircraft Industry
The UK currently has the industrial skills needed to develop, produce and maintain its military aircraft, but predicted future demand for design engineering activity is insufficient to sustain a number of key skills beyond the 2010-2019 decade.
Jan 31, 2011
Report
From Marginal Adjustments to Meaningful Change: Rethinking Weapon System Acquisition
The authors present detailed proposals to improve defense acquisition through initiatives focused on competition, novel systems, risk management, organizational factors, prototyping, and the acquisition workforce.
Oct 8, 2010
Report
Controlling the Cost of C4I Upgrades on Naval Ships
Looking across a set of completed C4I upgrades to U.S. Navy ships, the authors uncovered mixed evidence of cost improvement, a high level of variability in costs, and a trend toward overestimating the installation-labor costs of certain upgrades.
Sep 14, 2009
Periodical
RAND Review: Vol. 33, No. 1, Spring 2009
Feature stories discuss government cost controls, health information technology, and negotiations with Iran; other stories discuss climate change, soft power, charter schools, meth use, Hispanic enlistments, Mumbai terrorism, and Jeremy Azrael.
Apr 27, 2009
Report
Determining When Competition Is a Reasonable Strategy for the Production Phase of Defense Acquisition
Identifies the benefits and drawbacks of competition in defense acquisitions and uses RAND's required cost reduction methodology to show how DoD can determine when the introduction of competition during production is a reasonable strategy.
2009
Report
U.S. Navy Shipyards: An Evaluation of Workload- and Workforce-Management Practices
RAND examines how best to manage the multibillion-dollar annual workload of public shipyards, including alternative workload allocations, options to decrease overtime levels and hedge against workload growth, and other potential U.S. Navy strategies.
Dec 8, 2008
Report
Why Has the Cost of Fixed-Wing Aircraft Risen? A Macroscopic Examination of the Trends in U.S. Military Aircraft Costs over the Past Several Decades
This report explores why, in recent decades, military fixed-wing aircraft costs have escalated faster than the rates of inflation, examining both economy-driven factors that the Services cannot control and customer-driven ones that they can.
Jun 25, 2008
Report
Sources of Weapon System Cost Growth: Analysis of 35 Major Defense Acquisition Programs
Cost growth in major weapon-systems programs results from errors in estimation and scheduling, government decisions, financial matters, and miscellaneous sources, with decisions involving changes in requirements, quantities, and production schedules the dominant cause.
May 16, 2008
Report
Sustaining Key Skills in the UK Naval Industry
Building on prior RAND research, this monograph explores the need for and retention of technical skills in the UK's naval industrial base, particularly among designers and engineers involved with surface ship and submarine acquisition and support.
Apr 12, 2008
Research Brief
Is Weapon System Cost Getting Better or Worse?
This research brief summarizes an analysis of cost-growth trends and their contributing factors in completed and ongoing U.S. Department of Defense weapon system programs, presenting recommendations to better manage and predict cost growth.
Aug 14, 2007
Report
Is Weapon System Cost Growth Increasing? A Quantitative Assessment of Completed and Ongoing Programs
This study examines cost growth in completed and ongoing U.S. Department of Defense weapon system programs over the past three decades and finds that development cost growth has remained high and without any significant improvement.
Aug 11, 2007
Research Brief
Does Buying the F-22A Under A Multiyear Contract Save Money?
This research brief examines the savings to be gained from a multiyear procurement of three lots of F-22A fighters.
Jun 27, 2007
Report
F-22A Multiyear Procurement Program: An Assessment of Cost Savings
Reviews the estimated savings to be gained from awarding multi-year contracts for 60 F-22A aircraft over three years.
Jun 25, 2007
Report
Sustaining U.S. Nuclear Submarine Design Capabilities
Given a lack of demand for nuclear submarine design resources in the near future, workforce and workload management options are analyzed to suggest ways to constrain the cost, schedule, and risk involved in the design of the next submarine class.
May 1, 2007
Research Brief
Sustaining the Ability to Design Nuclear Submarines
This research brief summarizes an analysis of workforce and workload management options to suggest ways to constrain the cost, schedule, and risk involved in the design of the U.S. Navy's next nuclear submarine class.
Apr 25, 2007
Report
Sustaining U.S. Nuclear Submarine Design Capabilities: Executive Summary
Given a lack of demand for nuclear submarine design resources in the near future, workforce and workload management options are analyzed to suggest ways to constrain the cost, schedule, and risk involved in the design of the next submarine class.
Apr 18, 2007
Research Brief
Why Have Navy Ship Costs Risen?
This research brief examines the rising costs of U.S. Navy ships over the past few decades and what the service can do now and in the future to reduce these costs.
Jul 18, 2006
Report
Historical Cost Growth of Completed Weapon System Programs
Our analysis shows that the Department of Defense (DoD) and the military departments have generally underestimated the cost of buying new weapon systems and that the growth is larger than previously thought.
Jul 12, 2006
Report
Impossible Certainty: Cost Risk Analysis for Air Force Systems
Reviews ways of implementing cost uncertainty analysis to better understand the costs of future weapon systems.
May 1, 2006
Research Brief
Better Methods of Analyzing Cost Uncertainty Can Improve Acquisition Decisionmaking
This research brief looks at the Air Force's cost estimation process for weapon systems and reviews ways of implementing cost uncertainty analysis to better understand the costs of future weapon systems.
Apr 26, 2006
Report
Why Has The Cost of Navy Ships Risen? A Macroscopic Examination of the Trends in U.S. Naval Ship Costs Over the Past Several Decades
Examines why the increases in acquisition cost for U.S. naval ships have outpaced the rate of inflation over the past several decades.
Apr 20, 2006
Research Brief
Building Ships On Time: How Can the Defence Procurement Agency More Accurately Monitor Progress?
UK military shipbuilding experiences considerable schedule slippage. To assess the reasons for this and means to improve it, RAND researchers surveyed major shipbuilders, reviewed relevant literature, and identified the primary causes of production d...
Nov 25, 2005
Research Brief
Can the United Kingdom Rebuild Its Naval Fleet? Challenges and Opportunities for the UK Shipbuilding Industrial Base, 2005–2020
The United Kingdom faces numerous challenges in producing warships from now through 2020, including developing a sufficiently sized and skilled workforce, updating facilities, and maintaining viable producers. To address these challenges, the UK Mini...
Nov 25, 2005
Research Brief
Commercial Shipbuilding Techniques: Can They Be Applied to Warship Production in the United Kingdom?
The United Kingdom faces numerous challenges in producing warships from now through 2020, including developing a sufficiently sized and skilled workforce, updating facilities, and maintaining viable producers. To address these challenges, the UK Mini...
Nov 25, 2005
Research Brief
Diversifying the Customer Base for Shipbuilding in the United Kingdom
UK's attempts to re-enter the commercial shipbuilding market or enter the military ship export market would face daunting challenges. Design breakthroughs by the UK could help its competitive position, but such advances require risky investments.
Nov 25, 2005
Research Brief
Reducing the Cost of Aircraft Carrier Acquisition
The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence is designing its next class of aircraft carriers. At the ministry's request, RAND presented several cost-saving tools and measures.
Nov 25, 2005
Report
The United Kingdom’s Naval Shipbuilding Industrial Base: The Next Fifteen Years
Assesses whether shipyards, other naval firms, and suppliers in the United Kingdom have sufficient capacity to meet the demands of the Ministry of Defence's planned naval acquisition programme over the next 15 years.
Jun 20, 2005
Report
Differences Between Military and Commercial Shipbuilding: Implications for the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence
Looks at the feasibility of UK shipbuilders expanding outside their domestic military contracts into the worldwide commercial or foreign military markets.
Jun 15, 2005
Report
Monitoring the Progress of Shipbuilding Programmes: How Can the Defence Procurement Agency More Accurately Monitor Progress?
Explores the reasons for and ways to anticipate schedule delays in shipbuilding programmes.
Jun 15, 2005
Report
Outsourcing and Outfitting Practices: Implications for the Ministry of Defence Shipbuilding Programmes
Advises how the United Kingdom should best use modern outsourcing and outfitting practices for shipbuilding in the years to come.
Jun 15, 2005
Report
Options for Reducing Costs in the United Kingdom’s Future Aircraft Carrier (CVF) Programme
Examines ways in which the UK Ministry of Defence can reduce the whole-life costs and manpower requirements of the Royal Navy's two Future Aircraft Carriers (CVFs).
May 6, 2005
Report
Modernizing the U.S. Aircraft Carrier Fleet: Accelerating CVN 21 Production Versus Mid-Life Refueling
What are the pros and cons of speeding up production of the Navy's newest carrier?
2005
Report
The Shipbuilding and Force Structure Analysis Tool: A User's Guide
Explains the RAND-developed Shipbuilding and Force Structure Analysis Tool and describes its use.
2004
Report
Military Jet Engine Acquisition: Technology Basics and Cost-Estimating Methodology
Adds new observations to the cost-estimating database from earlier RAND studies and presents a method for forecasting the development cost, development time, and production cost of future military engine programs
2003
Report
Assembling and Supporting the Joint Strike Fighter in the UK: Issues and Costs
Would it be worthwhile for the United Kingdom to undertake some of the assembly and repair work for its Joint Strike Fighter?
2003
Report
Final Assembly and Checkout Alternatives for the Joint Strike Fighter
Analyzes alternative strategies for final assembly and checkout of the Joint Strike Fighter.
Apr 29, 2002
Report
The Eyes of the Fleet: An Analysis of the E-2C Aircraft Acquisition Options
The Navy soon has to decide whether to buy new E-2C Hawkeye aircraft, retrofit old aircraft or refurbish them to extend their service lives, or adopt some combination of these options. This book analyzes the costs, benefits, and risks of those options.
Apr 29, 2002
Report
Refueling and Complex Overhaul of the USS Nimitz (CVN 68): Lessons for the Future
Improving the planning and execution of the refueling and complex overhaul of the Navy's nuclear aircraft carriers
Apr 1, 2002
Report
The Royal Navy's New-Generation Type 45 Destroyer: Acquisition Options and Implications
In 2001, RAND helped the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence (MOD) evaluate different acquisition strategies that it might use to acquire the new-generation Type 45 destroyer.
2002
Report
Assessing Competitive Strategies for the Joint Strike Fighter: Opportunities and Options
Defense policymakers in the United States expect that the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will play a critical role in U.S. and allied military forces through the first half of this century.
2001
Report
Advanced SEAL Delivery System: Perspectives and Options
The Deep Submergence Directorate of the Naval Sea Systems Command asked RAND to undertake a brief analysis examining the follow-on production of the Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS). This documented briefing presents the study findings.
2001