Date of Award

9-1999

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Cost Analysis

First Advisor

Maj Daryl Hauk

Abstract

The Post Cold War acquisition environment has been marked by significant budget reductions and the greater use of commercial practices. In this austere and rapidly changing acquisition environment, accurate cost estimates are paramount to maximize the use of the DoD's critical resources. The advancement of laser technology has spawned a large variety of military laser applications such as the Airborne Laser (ABL), Space Based Laser (SBL) and a host of other smaller programs. Furthermore, the Air Force Laboratory's Directed Energy Applications for Tactical Airborne Combat (DEATAC) Study (the sponsoring activity of this thesis research) is considering a host of airborne laser system proposals. While the need for laser cost models/data is clearly increasing, such information is not readily available. Commercial pricing data is used in this research to create models that help to fill this void. Specifically, this thesis built a commercial laser database containing commercial laser parameters and prices gathered from commercial manufacturing catalogs. An evaluation of the data identified some laser parameters as cost drivers. Using the technique of Ordinary Least Squares Regression, a series of six CERs were developed to estimate laser device prices.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GCA-LAS-99S-2

DTIC Accession Number

ADA369557

Comments

Co-authored thesis. Author Vita pages are omitted.

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