This report provides an in-depth look at the current state of through-life support (TLS) and through-life capability management (TLCM) as it relates to the U.K. Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) weapons systems sustainment. TLS and TLCM represent a transformative approach to weapons systems acquisition that is based on acquiring “outcomes” and capability over the life of a platform in order to reduce cost and improve performance. TLS refers to supporting a weapons system platform throughout its entire lifecycle. TLCM represents a still further evolution of the through life concept to delivering not just weapons system availability, but delivering capability – e.g., the capability to blow up a target.
This research was partially sponsored by the Lockheed Martin Corporation.