A quantitative and qualitative study of life cycle costing in defense projects and programs

Life cycle costing is internationally regarded as one of the best tools for evaluating investments in military equipment; according to its holistic precepts, it estimates all costs associated with the product/system in its concept, development, production, use, support, and decommissioning stages. This article, seeking to understand these motivations and to contribute to existing knowledge on the subject, conducts a quantitative and qualitative literature review and finds that life cycle costing not only is applied in the initial phase of development or acquisition of a product/system for the selection of the best investment proposal but also has strong application potential in integrated development to ensure the inclusion of factors that provide the competitiveness, reliability and low-cost operation of future military products/systems. Finally, despite the low number of annual publications, it is possible to point out trends and identify characteristics like the triple helix relationships and genuine pressures of the contemporary world, such as the need to increase productivity, reduce costs, promote innovation and protect the environment, which are trends that allow life cycle costing to remain current and strategic, with an increasing transfer of knowledge from the military to the private sector.