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Aligning Dod Cost Analysis Competencies To Third Party Standards, Helga D. Leite-Evora
Aligning Dod Cost Analysis Competencies To Third Party Standards, Helga D. Leite-Evora
Theses and Dissertations
In an attempt to improve certification training programs, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2020 mandated changes to certification requirements for all acquisition related career fields directing the implementation of certification programs based on nationally or internationally accredited third-party standards (NDAA, 2019). This research focused on DoD’s Defense Acquisition University’s (DAU) Business Cost Estimating (BUS-CE) Program’s compliance with the NDAA. The study has one major research question that focuses on determining how well aligned the Defense Acquisition University’s (DAU) BUS-CE certification program’s competency model is to its relevant third-party standard, the International Cost Estimating and Analysis Association's (ICEAA) Cost …
Defense Industrial Base Mergers And Acquisitions In The Post-Cold War Era, Corey D. Mack
Defense Industrial Base Mergers And Acquisitions In The Post-Cold War Era, Corey D. Mack
Theses and Dissertations
The United States Department of Defense (DoD) relies on prime contractors for weapon system development, acquisition, and sustainability, but the increased consolidation of the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) through mergers and acquisitions (M&A) has raised concerns over reduced competition. This research consists of two studies. The first reviews existing literature to identify factors behind the DIB's increased M&A activity since the 1990s, such as DoD budget cuts and market structure. The second study examines the relationship between a prime contractor's financial health and M&A spending, finding a significant relationship between efficiency and M&A spending. Policymakers can use this information to …
Net Zero Water Air Force Installations, Kenneth R. Mcknight
Net Zero Water Air Force Installations, Kenneth R. Mcknight
Theses and Dissertations
The United States continues to face problems of a reduction in quality and quantity of groundwater sources because water extraction exceeds natural source recharge. The Air Force has recognized the importance of these groundwater sources but has put minimal effort into determining their contribution to the depletion of these sources. The purpose of this study is to determine this contribution by determining whether Air Force installations are net zero water. This is done using a geospatial information system to determine the volume of water recharging groundwater sources associated with an Air Force installation. This volume is then compared to the …
An Analysis Of Cloud Computing Migration Costs And Effects For Dod Applications, Joseph S. Moore Iv
An Analysis Of Cloud Computing Migration Costs And Effects For Dod Applications, Joseph S. Moore Iv
Theses and Dissertations
The Air Force launched “Cloud One” in 2017. Cloud One provides cloud computing options for military applications. Cloud One provides common secure computing environments, standardized platforms, application migration and support services, and data management. Currently, Cloud One has over one hundred mission applications on board. Although there is information on the cost, performance, personnel requirements, risks, and migration of the commercial sector and cloud options, there is limited recorded information on the same topics for Cloud One. As such, there is a gap in the literature regarding data/feedback for mission applications that have migrated to Cloud One. This research takes …
A Comparative Analysis Of Viral Aerosol Biological Sampling Efficiency Of A Small Unmanned Aircraft System (Suas)-Mounted Aerosol Sampler And A Reference Static Biosampler®, Jonathan D. Moroz
Theses and Dissertations
Bioaerosol sampling using small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) is a rapidly developing field that may result in a paradigm shift in emergency response and industrial hygiene sampling conventions. These technologies offer decreased sample acquisition times, larger sampling area coverage, and reduced health and safety risks to traditional human sampling teams. This potential requires a comprehensive investigation of sUAS capabilities and limitations. This study is a continuation of the characterization of an AFIT-developed sUAS-mounted aerosol sampler, proven capable of collecting viable vegetative and spore-forming bacteria through previous AFIT research. Within this study, viral biological sampling efficiency (BSE) of the sUAS-mounted aerosol …
Team And Skill Matching For Disaster Recovery Operations, Emily B. Frahm
Team And Skill Matching For Disaster Recovery Operations, Emily B. Frahm
Theses and Dissertations
United States Air Force (USAF) bases are key power projection platforms that ensure mission readiness and help bring humanitarian aid to locations in need. Recovering airfields after attack or natural disaster is a key mission of USAF civil engineers, and accomplishing this repair as swiftly as possible is key to maintaining our position in the global order. Accomplishing a disaster recovery project is a set of teams, each assigned to a specific task, and made up of a series of personnel. The question answered within this paper is: how do we match the right person with the appropriate skills to …
Sea Level Rise Impacts On Wastewater Treatment Plants And Their Social Vulnerability Differences, David S. P. Robinson
Sea Level Rise Impacts On Wastewater Treatment Plants And Their Social Vulnerability Differences, David S. P. Robinson
Theses and Dissertations
Many of the United States’ major cities that have a high population are located along the coast. The number of people residing in low elevation coastal areas, be-low 10 meters, is increasing. Coastal areas may be affected by various short- and long-term climate hazards, such as sea level rise (SLR). Climate change induced SLR will threaten residents and infrastructure in low-lying coastal areas. A household’s capacity to respond to hazards is highly dependent on its socio-demographic situation which determines its social vulnerability. Wastewater treatment facilities area particularly critical piece of infrastructure often located in low-lying areas due to gravity fed …
A Decadal Analysis Of Factor Trends In Production Data For Department Of Defense Acquisition Programs, Scott A. Reilly
A Decadal Analysis Of Factor Trends In Production Data For Department Of Defense Acquisition Programs, Scott A. Reilly
Theses and Dissertations
This research involves the analysis of standard parametric cost factors across decades within the Production phase of Department of Defense (DoD) acquisitions. DoD cost estimators utilize factors to develop budgets, build cost estimates, measure program progress, and crosscheck for other estimating methodologies. This research analyzed contract data from 732 cost data summary reports (DD Form 1921) across seven decades and eight common work breakdown structure (WBS) elements. In addition to analyzing differences in these WBS elements, this research also provides analysis across decades for several commodity types, contract types, contractor types, and service branches. The statistical tests conducted in our …
Cost Estimating Relationships For Recurring T100 Flyaway Costs, Kyrie M. Rojo
Cost Estimating Relationships For Recurring T100 Flyaway Costs, Kyrie M. Rojo
Theses and Dissertations
This research investigates a dataset of over 80 Air Force and Navy aircraft and applies regression techniques to create two cost estimating relationships (CERs) for predicting recurring T100 flyaway costs, depending on where in the acquisition lifecycle the estimate takes place. The first CER explains 89 percent of the variation in the dataset and can be applied prior to Milestone B (MS B). The second CER explains 88 percent of the variation in the dataset and can be applied between MS B and MS C. Significant cost drivers identified include stealth, cohort, empty weight, the natural log of speed, legacy …
Illuminating The Unknown: A Mixed Methods Exploration Of The Dod Software Factory Ecosystem, Zachary O. Ryan
Illuminating The Unknown: A Mixed Methods Exploration Of The Dod Software Factory Ecosystem, Zachary O. Ryan
Theses and Dissertations
The Department of Defense’s (DoD) software factories are a collection of modern software acquisition programs that commonly employ the agile, network-based business strategies often found within commercial industries. Having been formally recognized by senior leaders for their revolutionary software development approaches, the software factories highlight a cultural shift within the DoD away from traditional organizational practices. As a result of the factories demonstrated successes, the number of programs employing non-traditional strategies is expanding. While this is notable, it also presents a challenge because a comprehensive understanding of the characteristics, structures, and behaviors of the DoD’s software factories does not currently …
Decontamination Of Perfluoroalkyl Substances From Stainless Steel Piping Used In Aqueous Film Forming Foam Fire Suppression Systems, Ryan M. Register
Decontamination Of Perfluoroalkyl Substances From Stainless Steel Piping Used In Aqueous Film Forming Foam Fire Suppression Systems, Ryan M. Register
Theses and Dissertations
This study examines the removal of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from legacy hangar fire suppression systems which utilized PFAS containing aqueous film forming foam (AFFF). Hundreds of these systems are currently in place throughout the Department of Defense, with planned phase-out occurring by 2024. The estimated cost of replacing these systems is $2.1 billion dollars. To mitigate this cost, a triple-rinse method of decontamination has been proposed. This thesis explores the release of PFAS from AFFF systems during a triple-rinse decontamination, and the continued removal of PFAS after a triple-rinse is complete while simultaneously analyzing methylene blue dye as a potential …
Long-Term Asset Prioritization To Support District Planning, Melissa R. Sallberg
Long-Term Asset Prioritization To Support District Planning, Melissa R. Sallberg
Theses and Dissertations
The United States Air Force (USAF) relies on its installations to project military power across the globe. However, due to the deferred infrastructure maintenance and recapitalization backlog of $33 billion as of 2019 (Wilson & Goldfein, 2019), it is more critical than ever for base-level community planners to focus their attention to the projects that will achieve each installation’s long-term goals. The recent incorporation of asset management principles into the USAF District Planning Process allows a unique opportunity to improve the existing scoring model for a holistic look at what matters to enterprise leaders and community planners making the plans …
The Effects Of International Defense Sales On Aerospace Prime Contractor Profitability, Gregory T. Sanders
The Effects Of International Defense Sales On Aerospace Prime Contractor Profitability, Gregory T. Sanders
Theses and Dissertations
Faced with declining defense budgets following the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s, US defense contractors needed to explore other sources of revenue outside of typical domestic defense sales to survive. Expansion into the international defense sales market was one of the avenues pursued by defense contractors attempting to capture profits (Deutch, 2001). However, not many studies have been found assessing the relationship between international defense sales and profitability since then. This research examines the relationship between international defense sales and profitability using data collected on the top five US defense contractors from 1994-2021. Time-series analysis is …
Applications Of Fragile Curves To Water Distribution Networks, Danielle M. Van Lanen
Applications Of Fragile Curves To Water Distribution Networks, Danielle M. Van Lanen
Theses and Dissertations
Water distribution networks are of critical importance to provide uninterrupted services to a city. Not only do they provide potable drinking water to customers they also are used for fire services and other emergency support functions. By the year 2039, the United States’ drinking water investment gap is estimated to grow to $136 billion dollars. As the gap between available funding and funding required, being able to prioritize assets for investments is critical. Unfortunately, water distribution networks are typically managed reactively rather than proactively. This paper showcases a methodology for a proactive approach to asset management through the use of …
An Analysis Of Escalation Forecasting For Ppi3364, Jacob T. Smith
An Analysis Of Escalation Forecasting For Ppi3364, Jacob T. Smith
Theses and Dissertations
The accurate forecasting of escalation is vital to generating useful cost estimates. This research investigates various methods for their accuracy in forecasting an index, PPI3364, which measures price changes in aerospace product and parts. This is done over two different spans of time: fiscal years and FYDP (five out years). Also, this study of methods for forecasting was conducted from the perspective of the practitioner in the PPBE process. Global Insight is the current source for forecasting escalation for the aerospace products and parts industry, but there are concerns, expressed by the Air Force Cost Analysis Agency, regarding the accuracy …
An Analysis Of A Modular Open System Approach On Program Management Metrics For Cost And Schedule, Kayla I. Vogler
An Analysis Of A Modular Open System Approach On Program Management Metrics For Cost And Schedule, Kayla I. Vogler
Theses and Dissertations
A modular open system approach (MOSA) and its inclusion of open architecture are among the prevailing acquisition strategies for cost and schedule management. This approach involves the incorporation of reusable, modular packages that can be incrementally added and upgraded throughout programs’ lifecycles. Many practitioners throughout the acquisitions community find that MOSA enables better opportunities for affordability, rapid acquisition, flexibility, enhanced competition, and innovation. A literature review reveals that few studies examine the interaction between MOSA and the extent to which it influences cost and schedule performance. However, no studies to date examine open architecture’s impact via programmatic evaluation of Earned …
Integrating Ace And Mca Requirements Into The Civil Engineer Officer Occupational Competency Framework, Stone D. Williford
Integrating Ace And Mca Requirements Into The Civil Engineer Officer Occupational Competency Framework, Stone D. Williford
Theses and Dissertations
The Air Force Civil Engineer officer career field has made dedicated efforts to the professional development of its company grade officers. In response to the 2015 Air Force Strategic Master plan, the Civil Engineer officer career field adopted a competency-based education approach. In 2020, the Civil Engineer Officer Career Field Education and Training Plan was published, officially integrating the career field’s operational requirements into a competency framework. However, since 2020, the Air Force has adopted an updated force generation strategy, and with it, changes to the way the Air Force assets are employed in contingency environments. This new scheme of …
Validation Of Digital System Models, James R. Winton
Validation Of Digital System Models, James R. Winton
Theses and Dissertations
The Department of Defense is undergoing a Digital Transformation driven by Digital Engineering and Model-Based Systems Engineering. Document-based processes are being replaced by digital artifacts, pedigreed data, and an Authoritative Source of Truth for a system across its life cycle. As traditional Design-Build-Test transitions to a Model-Analyze-Build methodology, digital models will proliferate throughout the enterprise and require novel validation processes earlier in the development timeline. A new definition for digital system model validation is proposed to address the identified shortcomings in existing guidance. The proposed validation framework leverages the Systems Modeling Language, use cases, requirements, test cases, and a custom …
Arctic Construction Under Climatological Constraints: A Decision Support System For Expeditionary Construction Site Selection In The Arctic Environment, Zachary S. Wontrop
Arctic Construction Under Climatological Constraints: A Decision Support System For Expeditionary Construction Site Selection In The Arctic Environment, Zachary S. Wontrop
Theses and Dissertations
The natural physical barriers present in the Arctic are being eroded by climate change, increasing near peer adversaries' abilities to exploit this region for strategic and economic gain. To maintain the Arctic as a region of strategic and economic international cooperation, increased infrastructure investment by the United States and its allies are required. No methodology currently exists to quantify construction-limiting climatological factors over time and space. Decision support systems can provide actionable information to guide decision makers during site selection. This research employs geographic, and time-coded historical climatology applied to a project case study, to develop a site selection decision …
Prediction Of Persistent Post-Traumatic Headache With Long Short-Term Memory Networks, Todd C. Campo
Prediction Of Persistent Post-Traumatic Headache With Long Short-Term Memory Networks, Todd C. Campo
Theses and Dissertations
Military members in combat situations are at a high risk for experiencing a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), often leaving them with Post-Traumatic Headache (PTH). There is currently a poor understanding of what factors predict if a patient will endure acute (short-term) PTH or Persistent PTH (PPTH). The Concussion Assessment, Research, and Education (CARE) Consortium dataset contains a variety of pre-and-post-injury concussion assessments taken by NCAA athletes and service academy cadets between 2014 and 2018. Participants in this study (n = 1769) suffered a TBI. Using this longitudinal data, three models were constructed: an LSTM model using the raw assessment scores, …
Information System Availability Status And Its Impact On Customer Wait Times, Joshua A. Cramer
Information System Availability Status And Its Impact On Customer Wait Times, Joshua A. Cramer
Theses and Dissertations
The Military Personnel Flight relies on Air Force Information Systems, specifically the Defense Enrollment Eligibility and Reporting System (DEERS), to manage the personnel records. When DEERS experiences a failure, then the operational ability of the Military Personnel Flight is affected. This study aims at identifying the impact Air Force information system’s availability status has on customer wait times using linear regression.
Garbage In ≠ Garbage Out: Exploring Gan Resilience To Image Training Set Degradations, Nicholas M. Crino
Garbage In ≠ Garbage Out: Exploring Gan Resilience To Image Training Set Degradations, Nicholas M. Crino
Theses and Dissertations
Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) have received increasing attention in recent years due to their ability to capture complex, high-dimensional data distributions without the need for extensive labeling. Since their conception in 2014, a wide array of GAN variants have been proposed featuring alternative architectures, optimizers, and loss functions with the goal of improving performance and training stability. While this research has yielded GAN variants robust to training set shrinkage and corruption, our research focuses on quantifying the resilience of a GAN architecture to specific modes of image degradation. We conduct systematic experimentation to determine empirically the effects of 10 fundamental …
The Aerial Refueling Asset Basing And Assignment Problem, Camryn E. Deames
The Aerial Refueling Asset Basing And Assignment Problem, Camryn E. Deames
Theses and Dissertations
With growing tensions in the European theatre and Indo-Pacific theatre, the constraints of aerial refueling impede the missions of Air Mobility Command and USTRANSCOM in their execution of both the National Security Strategy and National Defense Strategy. Introducing and integrating semi-autonomous aerial refueling aircraft is a logical next step due to advantages in endurance, survivability, runway requirements, and fuel offloading capacity. This research frames the Aerial Refueling Asset Basing and Assignment Problem with two model approaches: a baseline model and a fuel shuttle concept model. Whereas the former model considers instances with only manned refuelers or only semi-autonomous refuelers, the …
U.S. Army Force Structure Optimization And Sufficiency Analysis, Francis P. Gargin
U.S. Army Force Structure Optimization And Sufficiency Analysis, Francis P. Gargin
Theses and Dissertations
The United States Army perpetually deploys rotational forces across the globe in support of the National Security Strategy. These forces meet a set of discrete mission demands over an extended time period before redeploying, modernizing, and preparing for the next deployment. The U.S. Army now utilizes the Regionally Aligned Readiness and Modernization Model to execute these cyclical stages for unit deployments. Specific emphasis is placed on aligning forces against a Geographic Combatant Command, which allows units to build readiness and lethality oriented towards the same series of threats, physical terrain, and civilian considerations. This research provides an Integer Programming model …
A Comparison Of Wireless Sensor Networks Under Stochastic Deployment Methods To Ideal Network Structures, Andrew J. Grove
A Comparison Of Wireless Sensor Networks Under Stochastic Deployment Methods To Ideal Network Structures, Andrew J. Grove
Theses and Dissertations
This research addresses the ideal structure of a deployed network of sensors over a geographical area based on metrics such as coverage and connectivity. Using a genetic algorithm, the ideal structure for a range of target network sizes is determined. Then, a series of realistic methods of sensor distribution simulating the scattering of sensors such as a single linear pass, perpendicular passes, and parallel passes are compared to determine the ability of each method to achieve the ideal structure for each target network size. From the results, it is determined that the ideal structure for smaller networks contains a highly …
An Analysis Of Aircraft Maintenance Leading Indicator Metrics To Unit-Level Aircraft Availability Rates, William C. Hardy
An Analysis Of Aircraft Maintenance Leading Indicator Metrics To Unit-Level Aircraft Availability Rates, William C. Hardy
Theses and Dissertations
The purpose of this research is to improve the usefulness of data that is already collected within aircraft maintenance organizations to better identify trends, and outliers, and possibly better explain relationships between leading and lagging indicator metrics. Specifically, this graduate research paper sought to answer two research questions addressing what aircraft maintenance metrics significantly impact aircraft availability, and how to measure those to understand which metrics impact aircraft availability most. The research questions were answered through a comprehensive literature review, and the use of multiple linear regression analysis on data from two specific aircraft maintenance organizations from the same location. …
Hierarchical Federated Learning On Healthcare Data: An Application To Parkinson's Disease, Brandon J. Harvill
Hierarchical Federated Learning On Healthcare Data: An Application To Parkinson's Disease, Brandon J. Harvill
Theses and Dissertations
Federated learning (FL) is a budding machine learning (ML) technique that seeks to keep sensitive data private, while overcoming the difficulties of Big Data. Specifically, FL trains machine learning models over a distributed network of devices, while keeping the data local to each device. We apply FL to a Parkinson’s Disease (PD) telemonitoring dataset where physiological data is gathered from various modalities to determine the PD severity level in patients. We seek to optimally combine the information across multiple modalities to assess the accuracy of our FL approach, and compare to traditional ”centralized” statistical and deep learning models.
Lunar Search And Rescue: The Next Step For Human Spaceflight Recovery, Benjamin J. Johnis
Lunar Search And Rescue: The Next Step For Human Spaceflight Recovery, Benjamin J. Johnis
Theses and Dissertations
Humans return to the Moon in 2024 under the NASA Artemis mission. Commercial space explorations are rapidly expanding. The sudden increase of human spaceflight calls for increased emphasis on space rescue. These revelations drove an AFRL/AFIT capability gap assessment to provide specific proposals for a modern space rescue program guided by Transaction Cost Economics Theory. The mission analysis arms USSPACECOM and NASA to coordinate an interagency approach to Lunar Search and Rescue, positioning America to compete in the new space race. The strategic consequences of failing to act could fundamentally jeopardize American leadership in space.
Automated Registration Of Titanium Metal Imaging Of Aircraft Components Using Deep Learning Techniques, Nathan A. Johnston
Automated Registration Of Titanium Metal Imaging Of Aircraft Components Using Deep Learning Techniques, Nathan A. Johnston
Theses and Dissertations
Studies have shown a connection between early catastrophic engine failures with microtexture regions (MTRs) of a specific size and orientation on the titanium metal engine components. The MTRs can be identified through the use of Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) however doing so is costly and requires destruction of the metal component being tested. A new methodology of characterizing MTRs is needed to properly evaluate the reliability of engine components on live aircraft. The Air Force Research Lab Materials Directorate (AFRL/RX) proposed a solution of supplementing EBSD with two non-destructive modalities, Eddy Current Testing (ECT) and Scanning Acoustic Microscopy (SAM). Doing …
Pattern Of Life Modeling On Maritime Vessels With Bayesian Inferencing, Miles A. Kelly
Pattern Of Life Modeling On Maritime Vessels With Bayesian Inferencing, Miles A. Kelly
Theses and Dissertations
Despite decades of research, maritime traffic models’ limited predictive power continues to constrain their operational utility. We build on previous pattern of life modeling algorithms and contribute a Bayesian inferencing model for anomaly detection. Our probabilistic approach provides decision makers the capability to tailor the belief threshold for identifying anomalies and to enact a measured response based on the degree of abnormality. We perform a case study to evaluate the results, verifying that our Bayesian inferencing method accurately refines its probability when given the location and time of a ship of interest, and serving as a proof of concept for …