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AIA Announces Joint Industry/Government Council to Address Cost Estimating

November 16, 2007

Industry and government efforts to bridge huge differences in the estimated costs of military space programs resulted in the formation of a permanent council tasked with improving future efforts, AIA President and CEO Marion Blakey announced Friday. The new body, called the Joint Government/Industry Space Cost Analysis and Estimating Improvement Council, is expected to bring government and industry cost estimates closer together, Blakey said. "The council is a unique model of cooperation between multiple government agencies and industry," Blakey said. "Participants have established an ongoing discussion which should lead to solutions to our most onerous cost-estimating and acquisition problems." For years, a wide gulf between government and industry space program cost calculations caused planning and funding issues. Leaders had expressed concern about the perceived lack of transparency and understanding between the sides, and poor performing programs and significant cost growth hampered the industry. The council was announced during Friday's Cost Estimating Forum, a sidebar to the Executive Space Industry Roundtable held in conjunction with AIA's annual Board of Governors meeting. The idea for the group came about during a similar meeting in 2005. The formation of the Joint Government/Industry Space Cost Analysis and Estimating Improvement Council has included participation from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, U.S. Air Force, National Reconnaissance Office, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence along with AIA and individual member companies. The deputy assistant secretary for cost and economics in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Financial Management and Comptroller will chair the council when it officially forms in early 2008. The chairmanship will then rotate on an annual basis among other government participants. AIA represents the nation's leading manufacturers and suppliers of civil, military, and business aircraft, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, space systems, aircraft engines, missiles, materiel and related components, equipment services, and information technology.