PRICE Systems Helps Bring Executive Helicopter Into 21st Century VH-60N Cockpit Upgrade Program
The VH-60N is part of the Executive Helicopter Fleet, which provides helicopter transportation for the President, Vice President, Cabinet members and foreign dignitaries. The VH-60N also provides emergency evacuation capability supporting the White House Military Office and Joint Staff contingency plans. The VH Program Office wants to upgrade the existing cockpit from a 1980's analog technology to all digital technology.
The VH Program office tasked the NAVAIR Cost Department to provide cost estimating and analysis support for acquisition strategy decisions on the VH-60N Cockpit Upgrade Program.
NAVAIR contracted with PRICE Systems to develop the needed cost estimates for the Acquisition Decision Reviews and specifically requested a Business Case Analysis (BCA) for the Acquisition Strategy Review and a Life Cycle Cost Estimate for the Milestone B Review.
The Business Case Analysis helped the VH Program Manager assess several acquisition strategy options and to move forward with a single recommended strategy. The cost estimating and analysis portion of the BCA used a combination of parametric (PRICE Models) and bottom-up techniques to identify cost differences at various levels of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for the Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE), Production/ Installation/ Integration and Integrated Logistical Support (ILS) phases. The VH Program Manger selected the acquisition strategy recommended in the BCA. Later, a Life Cycle Cost Estimate was developed to further refine the cost for each Life Cycle Phases (Development, Procurement, and Operation & Support) for the preferred acquisition scenario.
The results of the cost estimating and analysis effort aided the VH Program Manager in successfully meeting the requirements of the Acquisition Decision Reviews and obtaining approval for the next phase of the program.