Tackling cost challenges of net centric warfare

This work presents a novel approach to tackling the challenges of estimating the cost impact of multiple net centric warfare architectural design alternatives, the cost of the equipment, the cost to maintain and upgrade the equipment in terms of hardware, software, and labor, and the total cost of ownership of those alternatives. This paper is the result of on-going research and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of alternate approaches to these costing challenges, including the use of knowledge-based parametric cost models.