A-10 Comprehensive Roadmap

Customer: United States Air Force

Challenge: To develop an investment strategy for the A-10 Weapon System that addresses near-term (FYDP) requirements and provides projections as far out as 2030.  The A-10 is an aging weapon system forecasted to be an integral part of the fighter force to and potentially beyond 2030 and will require modernization and sustainment to ensure its operational viability throughout this projected service life.  In the current and projected fiscally constrained environment, it is imperative to have an investment strategy that identifies modernization and sustainment initiatives (hardware, software, and support equipment) that “bring the most bang for the buck” while addressing current and forecasted capability gaps in an evolving operational environment. 

Approach: WBB used an analytical hierarchy process approach to help the A-10 stakeholder community to determine which A-10 attributes and capabilities need the most improvement for the platform to remain operationally viable.  WBB performed research into the various aspects of these capabilities and attributes to identify current and forecasted issues that impact that A-10.  Using a collaborative approach that was supplemented with key decision analysis tools, over 75 A-10 stakeholders  participated in a series of workshops to assess A-10 attributes and capabilities and to evaluate hardware, software, and support equipment initiatives, ability to address any identified shortfalls.  WBB developed and presented a Concept of Operations (ConOps) to set the stage for participants and provide a platform to better understand and discuss the future operating and support environment.  Using the results of these collaborative sessions, WBB worked with the A-10 Program Office and the Prime Contractor to further refine information about proposed priority initiatives which included programmatic and cost details.  WBB performed further analysis using the refined data to produce a recommended prioritized list of fiscally constrained initiatives (hardware, software, and support equipment) to address the capability gaps and shortfalls.  Air Combat Command A-10 office, using the results of the assessment, was better able to determine and advocate key initiatives for their annual Program Objective Memorandum submission for annual resourcing decisions.  In addition, WBB was able to help the A-10 community determine operational flight program (OFP) software update priorities using this collaborative input from the warfighters.  Finally, the results of the support equipment prioritization were used to guide further studies into an investment strategy for support equipment. 

Value: The completed A-10 Comprehensive Roadmap was presented to the A-10 SPO and ACC, and was unanimously approved.  The document serves as a one-stop reference for A-10 weapon system modernization and sustainment needs and priorities.  It provides a detailed explanation of required capabilities to include justification for those capabilities as well as operating concepts depicting the A-10 employing these capabilities.  This process is repeatable and provides requirements officers with traceability back to the original Joint Requirements – Critical to PMs when defending their programs.  The roadmap process provides a valuable approach to capture current warfighter needs and ensure that program goals are properly aligned to future requirements.