Cost Analysis for Major Defense Systems: A Telescopic View (original) (raw)

Cost analysis for major defense systems has emerged as a profession employing sophisticated techniques in the areas of applied mathematics and cost accounting. This paper provides a graduated perspective, which, while including technical discussion, places cost analysis in a larger strategic context. The graduated perspective takes us from the broad perspective of appreciating the military threat expressed in the cold war, recognizing the need for short term force structure and readiness despite longer development lead-times; then it narrows the focus through some of the policy, procedural, and analytical tools implementing modern cost analysis. The intention is to provide a survey with a coherent view across different historical contexts and technical disciplines. This view will answer the questions “What is the historical and technical environment in which defense system cost analysis is practiced?” and “How does this environment impose conditions on the practice of cost analysis?”.