The United States Air Force Approach to Capabilities-Based Planning and Programming (CBP&P), Part 2: Programming

Abstract : The Air Force Studies and Analyses Agency (AFSAA) is exploring possibilities for mathematically linking capabilities to cost in support of the United States Air Force (USAF) Capabilities Based Planning and Programming (CBP&P) process. Leveraging significant progress in modeling the planning phase of CBP&P based on capability, analytic modeling to support the programming phase continues to evolve. Legacy Department of Defense (DoD) accounting and finance systems, designed years before the CBP&P concept, do not offer an unambiguous linkage between cost and capability in terms of either proficiency or sufficiency (i.e., quality or quantity). In relation to capabilities, the Air Force has three fundamental cost drivers: (1) manpower, (2) material and equipment and (3) overhead. Analysis of these cost drivers should enable us to link capabilities (and their associated sub-capabilities and tasks) directly to cost. Determining the functional relationship between capabilities and cost provides the analytic foundation for capabilities based programming. Once these functional relationships are derived, resource allocation decisions can be studied using Business Case Analysis (BCA) to make optimum bang for the buck decisions across a spectrum of capability options.