New CAPE nominee pledges better grip on sustainment cost estimates

摘要

Susanna Blume, the nominee to direct the Pentagon's cost assessment and program evaluation shop, said today she wants to continue to improve the process used to estimate weapon system sustainment costs."There is opportunity to improve the fidelity and accuracy of independent cost estimates for major defense acquisition programs, especially in the area of operations and sustainment cost estimating," she wrote in response to advance policy questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee.Blume noted CAPE is developing an Enterprise Visibility and Management and Oversight of Operating and Support Cost database to better track and assess operation and sustainment costs and improve cost estimates over a program's life cycle.It is well known in defense acquisition circles that sustainment represents about 70% of a program's total cost. Lately, lawmakers have become increasingly critical of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter made by Lockheed Martin because of mounting sustainment costs.During Blume's nomination hearing today, Sen. Angus King (I-ME) said he too is concerned about the F-35. He noted that, along with costing $36,000 an hour to fly, the aircraft needs 40 hours of maintenance for every hour of operation, with only 250 hours of operation anticipated per year.