Requirement for Acquisition and Logistics Integration : An Examination of Reliability Management Within the Marine Corps Acquisition Process

Combat system reliability is central to creating combat power determining logistics supportability requirements and determining systems total ownership costs, yet the Marine Corps typically monitors only operational availability. While acceptable operational availability may be achieved through intensive maintenance and the stocking of needed repair parts in large quantities, this increases the logistics burden on the combat commander and is costly in terms of personnel, time, and funding. Data required to compare system reliability requirements in source documents, such as the Operational Requirements Document and the acquisition contract, to achieved reliability of fielded systems is generally not collected, maintained, or available. Contractual obligations to attain system reliability, if any, could not be Marine Corps, draining scarce funding from other priorities.Naval Postgraduate School Monterey CA Graduate School of Business and Publicpolicy is the author of 'Requirement for Acquisition and Logistics Integration : An Examination of Reliability Management Within the Marine Corps Acquisition Process', published 2002 under ISBN 9781423505846 and ISBN 1423505840.