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Key Characteristics Identified on the Programs with Extreme Cost Growth Are Important Causes of Extreme Cost Growth and Cost Growth in General

• With the possible exception of the Wideband Global SATCOM All Blocks, the low cost-growth programs exhibit few of the key characteristics of the six extreme cost-growth programs.
• The assessment of four Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAPs) with low cost growth and comparison with the six MDAPs with extreme cost growth indicate that there appears to be a strong relationship between the program attributes identified in our prior research and extreme cost growth.

There Is a Pronounced Difference Between the Programs with Extreme Cost Growth and Those with Low Cost Growth When Examining Estimated Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation Costs for All Ten Programs at Milestone B

• All of the programs with low cost growth have smaller research, development, test, and evaluation estimates at Milestone B, with the exception of the C-5 Reliability Enhancement and Re-Enginging Program.
• Our case-study analysis confirms that the six extreme cost-growth programs tended to be much larger, more complex, and challenging development (as well as production) programs than the four programs with low cost growth.
• This finding does not mean that the lessons learned from the low cost-growth programs are only truly applicable to similar types of lower complexity programs.