Research Brief
Addressing the Repair-or-Replace Dilemma in the Air Force's Aging Aircraft Fleet
Jan 1, 2004
Investigating Optimal Replacement of Aging Air Force Systems
Download
Full Document
Full Document
| Format | File Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PDF file | 0.4 MB | Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 10 or higher for the best experience. |
Summary Only
| Format | File Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PDF file | 0.1 MB | Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 10 or higher for the best experience. |
Purchase
Purchase Print Copy
| Format | List Price | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add to Cart | Paperback53 pages | $18.00 | $14.40 20% Web Discount |
The authors examine a common problem: Whether to continue to repair an aging system or to invest in a new replacement. As part of a continuing project on aging aircraft and the replacement-or-repair decision, the authors develop a parsimonious model of the decision and apply it to the U.S. Air Force’s C-21A transport and KC-135 tanker aircraft. They find that, for the C-21A, it probably would be appropriate to undertake a 20,000 flight hour system and component replacement schedule-prescribed renovation in the 2012 timeframe, but the aircraft should be retired around 2020. It would be optimal to replace the KC-135 tanker before the end of the decade, assuming its maintenance costs and availability continue to worsen at the current rate. In general, the Air Force should repair, rather than replace, an aging system if and only if the availability-adjusted marginal cost of the existing aircraft is less than the replacement's average cost per available year. Because parameter estimates are speculative, the authors urge more in-depth analysis.
Related Products
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Introduction
Chapter Two
Modeling the Decision to Repair or Replace an Aging Aircraft
Chapter Three
The C-21A Repair Versus Replacement Decision
Chapter Four
Estimating Model Parameters for the KC-135
Chapter Five
Conclusions
Research conducted by
The research reported here was sponsored by the United States Air Force and conducted within RAND Project AIR FORCE.
This report is part of the RAND Corporation monograph report series. The monograph/report was a product of the RAND Corporation from 1993 to 2003. RAND monograph/reports presented major research findings that addressed the challenges facing the public and private sectors. They included executive summaries, technical documentation, and synthesis pieces.
Permission is given to duplicate this electronic document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Copies may not be duplicated for commercial purposes. Unauthorized posting of RAND PDFs to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND PDFs are protected under copyright law. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit the RAND Permissions page.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.