During this era in which budget shortfalls are commonplace, it is necessary for program sponsors to have an effective means of estimating and justifying their budgets. Program sponsors rely on cost analysts to complete and defend these detailed budget estimates. The Operation and Support (O&S) portion of a missile system's life cycle accounts for approximately 78%¹ of the total program's costs. Thus establishing a structured means of estimating a missile system's O&S cost will greatly aid cost analysts. Through use of the Operation and Support Cost AnalyzeR (OSCAR) System, cost analysts and program sponsors will be provided with defendable budgets. The OSCAR system consists of an OSCAR database², OSCAR model³, and methodology on how to maintain the OSCAR system. The design and development of the OSCAR system including the OSCAR model and OSCAR database was completed by Rosemarie Bolha as part of the Project Report submitted to the Faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

The OSCAR database consists of Cost Estimating Relationships (CERs) for all of the O&S sub-elements. The majority of the CERs were statistically derived from the data collected from numerous missile systems. This database is used to support and supplement the detailed analyses completed by the OSCAR model. The OSCAR model predicts any missile system's O&S cost. The OSCAR model provides budget estimates and supporting information quickly and reliably. The OSCAR model is designed with the capability to predict costs for two or three levels of maintenance, calculate a missile's recertification schedule based on a variety of system-in-service-times, and provide the user with both a detailed and a summarized Logistics Requirement Funding Plan‘ report.

By incorporating state-of-the-art system engineering concepts, the OSCAR system is designed with considerations for user friendliness, fulfillment of end users needs, and flexibility. One such concept is a six step analytical approach referred to as a "system life-cycle process.” A modified system life-cycle process was used to develop the OSCAR system.

The OSCAR system will be presented to both NAVAIR 524 and NAVAIR 418 (Cost Analysis and Airborne Weapons Logistics Divisions) for their use in estimating O&S cost for missile system's. The OSCAR system will be maintained and annually updated by NAVAIR.