Mark V. Arena

Building on prior RAND research, this monograph explores the need for and retention of technical skills in the UK's maritime industry, particularly among designers and engineers involved with surface ship and submarine acquisition and support. The results reveal that the UK's future naval programme likely will have to be modified or augmented to sustain these technical skills in the long term.

Congress asked RAND for an independent review of whether the estimated savings from proposed multiyear contracts for 60 F-22A aircraft over three years would yield the promised savings. Researchers found that a multiyear procurement of three lots of F-22A fighters would save an estimated $411 million-about 4.5 percent of the total contract value-and that savings attributed to the multiyear contract by the contractors appear to be reasonable.

In recent decades, there have been numerous attempts to rein in the cost growth of U. S. Department of Defense acquisition programs. Drawing on prior RAND research, new analyses of completed and ongoing weapon system programs, and data drawn from Selected Acquisition Reports, this study finds that development cost growth over the past three decades has remained high and without any significant improvement.

Our analysis shows that the Department of Defense (DoD) and the military departments have generally underestimated the cost of buying new weapon systems and that this growth is higher than previously thought. It indicates a systematic bias toward underestimating costs and substantial uncertainty in estimating the final cost of a weapon system.

Over the past several decades, increases in acquisition costs for U. S. Navy combatants have outpaced the rate of inflation. To understand why, the authors of this book examined two principal source categories of ship cost escalation (economy-driven factors and customer-driven factors) and interviewed various shipbuilders. Based on their analysis, the authors propose some ways the Navy might reduce ship costs in the future.

Assesses whether shipyards, other naval firms, and suppliers in the United Kingdom have sufficient capacity to meet the demands of the Ministry of Defence's construction of new ships and submarines over the next 15 years. The United Kingdom has many contracted and prospective shipbuilding programmes on the horizon over the next two decades. The UK Ministry of Defence wants to know whether its country's diminishing industrial base will be able to meet the requirements of this shipbuilding plan. Using extensive surveys and a breadth of data, RAND researchers look at the capacity of the UK shipbuilding industrial base and how alternative acquisition requirements, programmes, and schedules might affect this capability.

Advises how the United Kingdom should best use modern outsourcing and outfitting practices for shipbuilding in the years to come. The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence (MOD) is preparing for the construction of the Royal Navy's two new Future Aircraft Carriers (CVFs), slated to enter service in 2012 and 2015, respectively. The CVFs will be the largest warships built in the United Kingdom in decades. At the request of the MOD, the RAND Corporation looked at the risks of current contractor plans and estimated the cost implications of using alternative manufacturing options in the coming years.

The Shipbuilding and Force Structure Analysis Tool is a series of four linked models that provide an environment in which the user is able to understand the implications of force structure choices on resource requirements and the shipyard industrial base. This is an introduction to the tool.

Explores the reasons for and ways to anticipate schedule delays in shipbuilding programmes. 450-character abstract: The Defence Procurement Agency, part of the UK Ministry of Defence, asked Rand to analyze how major shipbuilders and contractors monitor programme progress, to consider what information would be useful for shipbuilders to provide the agency, and to understand why ships are delivered late and why commercial shipbuilders maintain a much better schedule performance than do military builders. This monograph presents the researchers' findings and recommendations, which was based on surveys of major US, UK, and other European shipbuilders and other extensive industry research.

This book describes an analysis of strategies for the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense to take in acquiring the TYpe 45, a new generation destroyer that will become a main component of the Royal Navy's surface fleet.

Examines ways in which the UK Ministry of Defence can reduce the whole-life costs and manpower requirements of the Royal Navy's two Future Aircraft Carriers (CVFs). In 2012 and 2015, respectively, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence will replace its three Invincible-class aircraft carriers with two Future Aircraft Carriers (CVFs), the largest ships ever constructed for the Royal Navy. The research described in this report focuses on possible reductions in whole-life costs and manpower requirements of the carriers.