Global Hawk: Root Cause Analysis of Projected Unit Cost Growth

Abstract

In May 2007, Office of the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics) asked the Director, Performance Assessments and Root Cause Analyses (PARCA) to perform a root cause analysis of anticipated unit cost growth in the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system program. This request was based on a cost growth estimate performed by CAPE-CA, the cost analysis group within the Cost Analysis and Program Evaluation (CAPE) directorate of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. That cost estimate concluded that average procurement unit cost (APUC) for the Global Hawk program has grown by more than 20 percent since the program was restructured in 2007. PARCA asked IDA to identify the root causes of the APUC growth identified by CAPE-CA, in accordance with the root cause analysis guidelines established in the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009 (WSARA). This report describes our analysis and findings related to that task.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 2011
Accession Number
ADA549834

Entities

People

  • David M. Tate
  • Jeffrey N. Fox
  • Patricia F. Bronson
  • Paul M. Kodzwa

Organizations

  • Institute for Defense Analyses

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • Sensors
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Command And Control
  • Contracts
  • Data Transmission
  • Department Of Defense
  • Global Positioning Systems
  • Governments
  • Ground Moving Target Indicators
  • National Security
  • Network Protocols
  • Systems Engineering
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Unmanned Aerial Systems
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Aerial Unmanned Vehicle Swarm Micro Periodontal Dentistry.
  • Defense Acquisition Program Management

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy