Back in July, I wrote a blog post entitled  DoD Sustainment Metrics. As a follow-up, encourage those of you who might have missed it to go take a look at it, and peruse some of the key references cited, most notably:

·         DoD Instruction 5000.02 Enclosure 2, Para 8.a.c.(1)

·         Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction CJCSI 3170.01H

·         Appendix E to Enclosure B of the JCIDS Manual

·         Defense Acquisition Guidebook (DAG) Para 5.1.1.2.

·         USD AT&L Memo "Strengthened Sustainment Governance for Acquisition Program Reviews" 5 Apr 10

·         USD AT&L Memo “Document Streamlining - Life-Cycle Sustainment Plan (LCSP)”, 14 Sep 11, Para 2.1 & Table 2.1

·         Life Cycle Management & Sustainment Metrics Continuous Learning Module

Long term product support & sustainment planning is an interdisciplinary endeavor, making these key documents essential reading for all good requirements managers, program managers, systems engineers, life cycle logisticians, and product support managers. Bring your colleagues along on this journey. If not already familar with it, assist them in understanding why this matters. As a start, I’d highly recommend taking the time to read, understand, and share the 19 Jan 2012 JCIDS Manual Appendix E to Enclosure B Guide for the Sustainment KPP. This is a “must read” for anyone who professes interest or expertise in wise stewardship of DoD funds, maintaining readiness, supporting the warfighter, or simply understanding the foundational principles of long term product support and sustainment of DoD weapon systems. Why?

The document itself makes this abundantly clear: “Sustainment is a key component of performance. Including sustainment planning “upfront” enables the requirements and acquisition communities to provide a system with optimal availability and reliability to the warfighter at an affordable cost. The value of the Sustainment KPP is derived from the operational capability requirements of the system, assumptions for its operational use, and the planned logistical support. For the PM to develop a complete capability solution for the warfighter, sustainment objectives must be established and performance of the entire system measured against those metrics.  This JCIDS Manual Appendix provides requirements managers, with support from the acquisition community, a guide to assist them in ensuring that effective sustainment is addressed and achieved. This is done through compliance with the Sustainment metrics as identified in the systems capabilities documents. This guide does not attempt to prescribe what will be provided to satisfy Sustainment requirements. It provides factors to be considered when determining if the rationale being provided meets the rigor needed for programs requiring a Sustainment metric.”