Complexity in an Unexpected Place: Quantities in Selected Acquisition Reports
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In the case of block upgrades, one possibility is to simply declare a new program for each block. This is the approach taken by the AIM-9, AIM-9X, AIM-9X Block II missile programs; the F/A-18C/D and F/A-18E/F fghter aircraft programs; and the UH-60L and UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter programs (among many others). Other programs have treated successive blocks as distinct official subprograms. This approachwas taken by the Joint Air-to-Surface Standof Missile (JASSM) program. The original program had no subprograms and developed the AGM-158 missile. During that development, the Air Force studied possible improvements to the missile, and decided to develop a second variant with longer range. The original AGM-158 was redesignated AGM-158A, and the new “JASSM-ER” (Extended Range) was designated AGM-158B. The program was split into two subprograms for reporting purposes, with JASSM-ER schedule, development costs, and production costs (and cost variances) reported separately. The Navy went even further with the new AGM-158C (LRASM) variant, deciding to make it a distinct program 6 rather than creating a new subprogram within the JASSM program. Thismay be because the newprogram is Navy-only, while JASSM is an Air Force program. 7 An advantage of these approaches is that they isolate the unit cost of the new block from the past, rather than computing an average over all past blocks. It would defeat the purpose of the N-M legislation if 50% APUC growth in what is essentially a new weapon system became invisible because it was being averaged together with thousands of past units of completely diferent design. 8 A second advantage is that the block upgrade is clearly identifable as design changes tomeet new requirements, as opposed to design changes to overcome technical difculties in achieving the original requirement. One disadvantage of the subprogram approach, as currently implemented, is that an N-M breach by any block triggers a mandatory review of every subprogram, as described in the discussion that follows. A disadvantage of both subprograms and separate programs is the difculty of accounting for shared RDT&E, nonrecurring, and support costs, such as for testing equipment or software that is used by multiple blocks. For example, the RQ-4B Global Hawk family all use a common ground station. If this program had used separate subprograms for each distinct aircraft design, it would be inappropriate for the original RQ-4A subprogram to bear the cost of all upgrades to the ground station systems and software, given that all blocks beneft from those upgrades.
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Defense ARJ, January 2020, Vol. 27No. 1 : 28-59
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