Enabling Affordability in Science and Technology

"The environment within the Department of Defense for acquiring weapon systems is rapidly changing. The defense procurement budget has fallen more that 50% from its peak, and DoD and the services are demanding more performance for less cost. Gone are thedays when new systems could be developed and produced simply for reasons of greater payload, better reliability, more weapons on target, improved technology, etc. Now the benefits of performance improvements must be balanced against cost to arrive at a"best value" solution. In other words, the technology must be affordable. In the past, affordability was not often a priority for AFRL laboratory programs because the emphasis was on new technology, and the focus was strictly on performance. AFRL isattempting to measure and report return on investment (ROI) for S&T programs. Since a cost saving can't always be demonstrated for a new technology that provides previously unattainable military capability, innovative methods of measuring both investmentand return, need to be developed. . This multi-phase SBIR develops the methodology and tools to evaluate financial returns on S&T investments. Phase I identifies and tests the ROI utility measures of merit. Phase II develops the prototype affordabilitytool set.DoD's acquisition community has a problem that is also common to many businesses: determine how to determine and then optimize return on investment (ROI) for science and technology.