Cost and Schedule Implications of Multinational Coproduction

Coproduction, or international collaboration during production of a major weapon system, is one of the more complex forms of multinational cooperation, and the Rand Corporation has completed a comprehensive investigation into some widely held beliefs about such arrangements. The purpose of the analysis was to assess the impact of coproduction on acquisition costs and schedules and to identify ways to maximize its advantages while sidestepping its pitfalls. (For details of this Air Force-sponsored study, see Michael Rich, William Stanley, John Birkler, and Michael Hesse, 'Multinational Coproduction of Military Aerospace Systems, ' Rand Corporation, R-2861-AF, October 1981). Researchers were particularly interested in determining whether European collaborative programs are credible guideposts for predicting the outcomes of U.S.-European programs, whether collaborative programs experience more schedule slippage than do uninational programs, and whether coproduction imposes a cost penalty on the United States. The Rand team examined a wide variety of uninational, U.S.-European, and European collaborative aerospace development and production programs, both completed and ongoing, including the largest and most complex U.S.-European collaborative effort to date, the F-16 fighter aircraft program.