Keeping a Competitive U.S. Military Aircraft Industry Aloft: Findings from an Analysis of the Industrial Base: Summary

For at least two decades, policymakers have expressed concerns that further consolidation could erode the competitive environment for military aircraft and degrade the industry's abilities to develop, manufacture, and support innovative designs. This monograph responds to a request by Congress...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Policy File 2012
Main Authors: Birkler, John, Bracken, Paul, Lee, Gordon T, Lorell, Mark A, Saha, Soumen, Tierney, Shane
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
Industry
RAND Corporation
Online Access:Request full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:For at least two decades, policymakers have expressed concerns that further consolidation could erode the competitive environment for military aircraft and degrade the industry's abilities to develop, manufacture, and support innovative designs. This monograph responds to a request by Congress to evaluate programs to ensure that more than one aerospace company could support design, development, and production of fixed-wing military aircraft in the future. It reviews a 2003 RAND evaluation of the risks and costs of the United States having little or no competition among fixed-wing military aircraft companies; examines changes in industrial-base structure and capabilities that have taken hold since that analysis was performed; and assesses how these and future changes will affect the industrial base. The authors find that only by involving two prime contractors equally in performing RDT&E (research, development, test, and evaluation) on a new large program, such as a bomber, could DoD sustain two firms through 2020 with RDT&E funding and through 2025 with procurement funding.