A tale of two aircraft: How non-functional attributes impact a system's lifecycle

James R. Enos, John V. Farr, Roshanak Nilchiani

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

The decision to retire a system within the Department of Defense (DoD) has proven difficult for defense department officials to make and systems are often extended beyond their expected lifecycle. During the system design process, engineers often use rules of thumb to guide the planned retirement date of a system and only considered retirement for the lifecycle cost estimates. However, there are inconsistencies in following these estimated retirement dates for DoD systems and the age of a system does not have an impact on the decision to retire or extend a system. This paper examines two distinct examples of DoD systems; the F-117 Stealth Fighter, retired in 2008 after 25 years of service, and the B-52 Bomber, currently active and expected to retire in 2045 after 90 years of service. This discrepancy in service life of two aircraft leads to the question of what non-functional attributes lead DoD decision makers to favor extending a system as opposed to retiring a system as planned. The paper uses grounded theory to examine articles that discuss the non-functional attributes, referred to as ilities, of these two aircraft to determine if there is a difference between the two. Based on 40 articles, the B-52 displays attributes of: Flexibility, extensibility, versatility, interoperability, and robustness more than the F-117. It is likely that these ilities are the driving factor behind the DoD's decision to extend the life of the B-52 and the lack of these iliies in the F-117 led to its retirement.

Original languageEnglish
StatePublished - 2017
Event2017 International Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Management, ASEM 2017 - Huntsville, United States
Duration: 18 Oct 201721 Oct 2017

Conference

Conference2017 International Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Management, ASEM 2017
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityHuntsville
Period18/10/1721/10/17

Keywords

  • Illities
  • System Retirement
  • Systems Engineering

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