Deepwater methods to address system of system risks

To replace aging and technologically obsolete aircraft, cutters and command and control infrastructure, the Coast Guard conceived and has begun a transformational recapitalization known as Deepwater. Deepwater is an integrated, performance-based, systems of systems acquisition. Costing $17 billion over 20 years, it is the single largest and most complex acquisition in Coast Guard history. It is also the first major federal acquisition program for a broad mission suite using an integrated, systems of systems design. This strategy involves unique technical, operational and political risk factors that Deepwater and other large networked system of systems acquisitions must manage well if they are to be successful. These include devising suitable performance metrics, managing system of systems boundaries, systematically controlling requirements changes, controlling total life cycle costs, gaining stable funding, and clearly communicating program concepts, including evolutionary cost and performance adjustments and baseline tradeoffs.