Global Hawk: Root Cause Analysis of Projected Unit Cost Growth

摘要

In May 2007, Office of the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology and Logistics) asked the Director, Performance Assessments and Root Cause Analyses (PARCA) to perform a root cause analysis of anticipated unit cost growth in the Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system program. This request was based on a cost growth estimate performed by CAPE-CA, the cost analysis group within the Cost Analysis and Program Evaluation (CAPE) directorate of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. That cost estimate concluded that average procurement unit cost (APUC) for the Global Hawk program has grown by more than 20 percent since the program was restructured in 2007. PARCA asked IDA to identify the root causes of the APUC growth identified by CAPE-CA, in accordance with the root cause analysis guidelines established in the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009 (WSARA). This report describes our analysis and findings related to that task.