Calculation of the Actual Cost of Engine Maintenance

The cost of military operations has been difficult to determine, yet considered of high importance. The cost of an operation is largely dependant upon the answers to subordinate questions involving the discrete costs of military activities, like supporting individual items. While different cost estimates have received attention from the media, the question arises as to how accurate these figures are. There have been numerous studies performed by the Operations Research analysts to minimize costs while allocating scarce resources. However, the values of these studies are dependent upon whether or not the cost figures used are sufficiently "true" or accurate. This research deals with the true representation of cost, in particular true cost of engine maintenance. In order to reach that goal, the thesis effort aimed to first look at the archival methods and models used to prepare cost estimations for a weapon system or a task performed in the Air Force. The engine maintenance is one and an important one of these tasks. Looking at those previous studies gained us insight on what the cost elements and factors might be. The research also looks at some of the current practices serving the same purpose.