Enabling Early Sustainment Decisions: Application to F-35 Depot-Level Maintenance

This report develops an economic-based framework that can be used to make weapon system sustainment sourcing decisions as part of a sustainment enterprise posture planning process. We demonstrate the use of this framework by applying it to a new weapon system, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, to identify depot maintenance strategies at the aircraft subsystem/technology level. To ensure that the affordability of the F-35 program is not threatened by continuing O&S cost growth, the Air Force is examining alternative strategies to reduce those costs. The Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, through the F-35 Joint Program Office, have determined that all depot-level repairs on the F-35 will have a core component. Having a core component means that the government will maintain the capability to perform some -- but not necessarily all -- repair work at a U.S. government facility. Core decisions are made to protect the services so that, in an event of a natural disaster, war contingency, or disruption in commercial-sector operations, the government will retain the capability to perform certain tasks. Air Force Materiel Command's Depot Operations Division has suggested that approximately 60% of the total depot maintenance workload for the F-35 falls into the core category. Thus, although the U.S. government will retain the capability to perform the range of depot-level repairs, 40% of the workload -- known as above core -- can be considered for sourcing to an organic Air Force facility, another military service's facility, a foreign partner, or the private sector. DoD guidance states that above-core depot workloads should be assigned on the basis of a best-value determination. But this guidance does not specify how to determine best value. To help fill this gap, this report presents an approach to determining best value when assigning above-core depot workloads.