ABSTRACT
The aerospace industry encompasses activities ranging from basic research through product development and production to deployment and support for a wide variety of products. One of the unique aspects of the aerospace industry's government/military marketplace is the inversion of the customer/supplier relationship. In the life cycle of a government aerospace project, five distinct phases are encountered. Each of these phases presents different and special demands on management and the relationships with the customer: preproposal, proposal preparation, full-scale development, production, and deployment. Design to life-cycle cost is a concept that defines an affordable cost for the entire project including all of the operational and support costs for the system in the field up to its retirement. The prime contractor traditionally accepts full responsibility for all activities carried out by the industrial team he has organized in accordance with his contract with the government.
