The new July 2017 issue of the peer-reviewed Defense Acquisition Research Journal (ARJ) is now available for your reading pleasure. The theme of this edition is “Using Past Trends to Predict Future Acquisition Outcomes.” Primary articles include:

• Analyzing Cost Growth at Program Stages for DoD Aircraft -This research examines cost growth factors from Milestone B to various program stages for 30 Department of Defense aircraft programs.

• Estimating Firm-Anticipated Defense Acquisition Costs with a Value-Maximizing Framework - The author uses a value-maximizing framework to predict how firms will bid under varying levels of risk sharing, allowing the government to estimate future costs more accurately.

• Informing Policy through Quantification of the Intellectual Property Lock-in Associated with DoD Acquisition - This article introduces a quantitative analysis of intellectual property lock-in trends in DoD acquisition. The analysis ultimately quantifies the magnitude of the problem, illustrates trends across 8 fiscal years, and correlates lock-in to internal research and development funding.

• The Impact of a Big Data Decision Support Tool on Military Logistics: Medical Analytics Meets the Mission - This study uses a combat simulation to demonstrate how military organizations not directly involved in logistics can use decision support tools to streamline their logistics operations. It further quantifies the benefits that one such tool designed for the military medical community might generate.

• Beyond Integration Readiness Level (IRL): A Multidimensional Framework to Facilitate the Integration of System of Systems - Data analyses of research aimed at understanding major integration issues of DoD Space Systems has been validated by experts, resulting in development of an integration assessment framework to help assess Integration Readiness Level of System of Systems.

• Effectiveness Test and Evaluation of Non-lethal Weapons in Crowd Scenarios: Metrics, Measures, and Design of Experiments - This article describes methods for quantitative metrics and analyses for test and evaluation of non-lethal weapons. Results from human testing are also presented.

As a reminder, the Defense Acquisition Review Journal (ARJ) is a scholarly peer-reviewed journal published by the Defense Acquisition University (DAU). All submissions receive a blind review to ensure impartial evaluation. Articles represent the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the DAU or the Department of Defense.