Do Joint Fighter Programs Save Money?

Abstract

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has launched or attempted to launch numerous joint fighter and other joint aircraft programs in the past 50 years. The largest and most recent is the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), which was designed for use by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, and international partners and is currently in low-rate initial production. The main purpose of a joint program, versus a set of single-service programs, is to save overall Life Cycle Cost (LCC) by eliminating duplicate research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) efforts and achieving economies of scale in procurement and operations and support (O&S). Yet, the need to integrate multiple service requirements in a single design increases the complexity of joint programs and potentially leads to higher-than-average cost growth that could reduce or even negate potential savings. There have been no comprehensive assessments of costs and savings in historical joint aircraft programs based on actual joint aircraft program outcomes and historical cost data. To help inform future acquisition strategies for fighter aircraft, the commander of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) asked RAND Project Air Force (PAF) to analyze the costs and benefits of historical joint aircraft programs, from the early 1960s through today's JSF. The project addressed five major questions: Have historical joint aircraft programs saved LCC compared with comparable single-service aircraft programs?; Is JSF on track to save LCC compared with notional equivalent single-service fighter programs?; What factors contributed to cost outcomes in historical joint aircraft programs, as well as JSF?; What are the implications of a joint aircraft approach for the industrial base?; and What are the implications of a joint aircraft approach for operational and strategic risk?

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA591529

Entities

People

  • David L. An
  • Ken Munson
  • Mark A. Lorell
  • Michael Kennedy
  • Robert A. Guffey
  • Robert S. Leonard
  • Shmuel Abramzon

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerial Warfare
  • Air Force
  • Air Power
  • Aircraft Equipment
  • Aircraft Industry
  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Attack Aircraft
  • Bomber Aircraft
  • Fighter Aircraft
  • Military Acquisition
  • Military Aircraft
  • Military Aviation
  • Organizational Structure
  • Short Takeoff Aircraft
  • Tactical Aircraft

Readers

  • Aerospace logistics and air mobility.
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis