Prototyping Defense Systems

Abstract

Prototyping helps to reduce technical risk in developing weapon systems. While it requires time and money upfront, it allows the government to delay major funding commitments. Thus, prototyping is receiving increased attention now because of lower budgets. Technical risk is a major cause of cost growth and schedule slip, and this paper investigates whether prototyping improves cost and schedule outcomes. The paper develops a framework for examining the level and purpose of prototypes. It examines cost growth and schedule slip for non-prototyped programs and prototypes of various levels and purposes. Results indicate that prototyping helps to make program costs, particularly development costs, more predictable. Prototyped programs take somewhat longer, but the differences may be due to technical complexity. Aircraft and tactical munitions have followed different prototyping strategies, with munitions' strategy being more successful. The analysis provides the basis for prototyping guidelines for use by DoD.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1991
Accession Number
ADA252657

Entities

People

  • Alec W. Salerno
  • Bruce R. Harmon
  • D. C. Gogerty
  • J. R. Nelson
  • Karen W. Tyson

Organizations

  • Institute for Defense Analyses

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Acquisition
  • Aircrafts
  • Classification
  • Defense Systems
  • Governments
  • Military Aircraft
  • Product Prototyping
  • Prototypes
  • Security
  • Weapon Systems
  • Weapons

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis
  • Software Engineering.