Frontier Technology, Inc. (FTI) announced award of a research contract for new cost and affordability methodologies for estimating life-cycle cost of military systems from a model-based, enterprise perspective. The research objective was established by the Secretary of Defense’s staff with the contract administered by the Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate. This Small Business Innovation Research effort will use as its basis an existing computer toolset, developed by FTI, and currently used by several Department of Defense organizations. The six-month Phase I effort, the first in a multi-phase program, will demonstrate the feasibility of the enhanced capabilities to include seamless operation of diverse tools, models and data across the enterprise and life-cycle phases.

Defense Department planners have stated the goal of this research is an approach to estimate the cost impact of design changes quickly and with credibility. This includes identification of key “cost drivers”, uncertainty, sensitivities and risk. Linking product and process models with built-in intelligence, to sources of cost information will facilitate design trade-offs and help maintain a “living” cost estimate throughout the system’s life cycle. This will help ensure that new military systems are both effective and affordable. The tools and methodology resulting from this research will be a significant step in addressing this goal.