An Estimation of USAF Aircraft Operating and Support Cost Relations
Abstract
In an environment of declining defense budgets, obtaining the appropriate balance among the components of U.S. military posture-force structure, modernization, readiness, and sustainability-will be extremely challenging and require careful analysis of the cost reduction alternatives. To analyze readiness, one must be able to relate those resources that affect it to weapon systems. The expenditure on resources that reflects the commitment of DoD to military readiness is called operating and suppose (O and S) cost, which is incurred as a direct result of operating a weapon system in peacetime. We believe that a long-term goal of DoD is to understand the readiness effect of force modernization in condition of constrained O and S cost. We are examining what data are available to link O and S cost to USAF aircraft and how these data can be used to approximate the O and S cost of an acquisition program. The Air Force has developed a data base called VAMOSC that tracks operating and support costs to aircraft mission design series (MDS). In this study, we examine the Weapon System Support Cost (WSSC) of VAMOSC and relate the information in this data base to other Air Force management information systems. We also develop cost estimating relationships that explain the O and S cost of our VAMOSC sample on the basis of aircraft characteristics and operating tempo variables. These relationships might also be useful for approximating the O and S cost of an acquisition program during the early phases of the Planning, Programming and Budgeting System.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA257665
Entities
People
- Gregory G. Hildebrandt
- Man-bing Sze
Organizations
- RAND Corporation