COST OF A HARDENED, NATIONWIDE BURIED CABLE NETWORK
Abstract
A study was made of the cost magnitudes of building and operating a new, hardened buried cable communication network of nationwide coverage to be used by the military services, Central Intelligence Agency, State Department and the President in order to enhance the over-all capability of the network including its capability for survival in times of national emergency. Depending upon the hardness requirements imposed on such a network, (in terms of overpressure in pounds per square inch), initial investment magnitudes can be expected to run as high as $2.4 billion for a 100 psi configuration to $3.4 billion for the same network hardened at all points to 1,000 psi. It was assumed that these investment costs would be borne by private industry and the military users would pay for the service in the form of annual lease costs. The magnitude of the Air Force share of such annual charges in the current decade was estimated to vary from perhaps $550 million for a 100 psi network to as much as $780 million for the 1,000 psi configuration. It must be remembered, however, that the planned-for annual cost for the current type of soft, vulnerable communications for the Air Force in the same decade will represent a significant portion of those figures. The incremental annual increase in cost resulting from operation of a new network like the example used in this study would probably lie between $350 and $500 million for the 1,000 psi configuration. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1961
- Accession Number
- AD0265337
Entities
People
- J. Chester
Organizations
- RAND Corporation