To Make or to Buy - an Approach to Making that Decision with Regard to National Weapons Acquisition.

Abstract

The smaller sophisticated nations have to decide where to procure their weapons systems. Though these smaller countries are probably capable of designing and manufacturing their own systems, this is not necessarily the most economically efficient use of their resources. This paper canvasses some of the issues involved in a make or buy decision. It then suggests a cost/benefit analysis as one way of applying a value to the pros and cons of the alternatives of make; buy; or varying shades of a mixture of the two. It further suggests that the whole of life costs, rather than the acquisition costs, should be the basis for the decision process and then that the alternative with the highest net present value should be the one selected. Additional keywords: defense economics; Australia; Capacity (quantity); maintenance requirements; economic analysis; military procurement. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1984
Accession Number
ADA154581

Entities

People

  • Robin Walters

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Aircrafts
  • Business Administration
  • California
  • Control Systems
  • Defense Industry
  • Department Of Defense
  • Economic Analysis
  • Economics
  • Governments
  • Investments
  • Maintenance
  • Management Personnel
  • Manufacturing
  • Money
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure

Readers

  • Logistics and Supply Chain Management.
  • Strategic Security Studies