Obtaining Life-Cycle Cost-Effective Facilities in the Department of Defense

Abstract

The Department of Defense (DoD) routinely constructs, operates, and maintains a large number of facilities, such as barracks, hangars, and administrative buildings. In fiscal year (FY) 2013, DoD will spend nearly $10 billion constructing new facilities, and about the same amount or more operating and maintaining existing facilities. These outlays represent different components of life-cycle costs, which include those for initial construction, as well as the energy and water, operations, maintenance, repair, and replacement costs that occur over different time periods in a facility's life. By focusing on reducing the life-cycle costs of its facilities, DoD can minimize its total cost of facility ownership. Accordingly, DoD incorporates life-cycle cost-effective practices into many aspects of the military planning and construction processes. Congress has expressed concern that DoD construction methods may not obtain the most life-cycle cost-effective facilities. Consequently, it requested that DoD conduct an independent assessment of construction techniques that provide life-cycle cost-effective facilities. The Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Installations and Environment (ODUSD[I&E]) in turn engaged RAND to help characterize the DoD process of obtaining life-cycle cost-effective facilities. The ODUSD(I&E) asked RAND to characterize any process issues in the programming, planning, design, budgeting, acquisition, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, or decommissioning of military construction (MILCON) projects that inhibit life-cycle cost-effective projects. This report provides RAND's description and assessment of the process used to obtain life-cycle cost-effective facilities and how that affects DoD construction options and choices. The focus of our work is the process, including how the incentives and barriers of various actors involved affect the overall objective of obtaining life-cycle cost-effective facilities.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA578149

Entities

People

  • Abigail Haddad
  • Clifford Grammich
  • Constantine Samaras
  • Katharine W. Webb

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Buildings And Structures
  • Business Administration
  • Congress
  • Construction
  • Construction Materials
  • Cost Analysis
  • Economic Analysis
  • Energy Management
  • Fire Resistant Materials
  • Investments
  • Law
  • Life Cycle Costs
  • Management Personnel
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Unified Combatant Commands

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Facility/Structural Engineering.
  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis