Between 1984 and 2006, 36 out of the 136 systems that underwent operational test and evaluation (OT&E) were evaluated as unsuitable. In light of this high proportion, in October 2006 the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation, commissioned a study from the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) to answer the following two questions:
- When a system is found to be operationally unsuitable, what are the associated costs?
- To what extent can such costs be avoided by addressing unsuitability issues during the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase?
Using a small, selected set of Department of Defense acquisition program case studies, the IDA examined three major aircraft plafroms that addressed substandard reliability in different programmatic phases. Using the IMEASURE model and other tools, IDA identified additional resources devoted to improving reliability, the resulting change in reliability, and the corresponding reduction in return.