Price vs. Performance: The Value of Next Generation Fighter Aircraft
Abstract
The United States Department of Defense (DoD) is currently recapitalizing its aging fighter aircraft inventory with the F-22A and F-35. While the DoD may consider cost and performance issues, it does not use a quantitative model that effectively measures the tradeoffs between the two. This thesis constructs a hedonic model of the fighter aircraft market to measure the implicit price on fighter performance characteristics and specifically applies it to next-generation aircraft. Data from 50 aircraft from 1949-present were used to construct two models ? one based on procurement costs and one based on research, design, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) costs. The models, based on a linear Box-Cox transformation, demonstrated that the unique F-22 trait, the ability to super-cruise, has the highest per-unit implicit price ($68.5M), followed by the stealth technology ($58.7M) and large-scale integrated circuitry ($55.3M). The high marginal value for the super-cruise trait implies that, depending on how super-cruise is used operationally, the F-35A may be a more effective purchase in terms of resource allocation than the F-22A.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA467340
Entities
People
- John M. Stelly
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology