Thomas Whitmore

This report draws a distinction between joint program management and commonality and argues that it is possible to achieve some degree of commonality without joint program management. Based on reviews of historical joint initiatives and relevant business management literature, the authors identify some of the factors affecting joint program success and recommend ways to apply those lessons to the management of the Future Vertical Lift initiative.

This appendix discusses historical implementation of multiyear procurement (MYP) and block buy (BB) contracts and how they compare. As context for an analysis of potential savings in an F-35 BB contract, it outlines the methodology and data sources for analyzing historical MYP and BB contracts and provides a high-level overview of trends observed across the case studies along with in-depth discussion of more-recent multiyear program case studies.