Author Description

In today's world of declining defense budgets, there is an increasing need for South Korea to ensure they obtain the best dollar value when procuring defense articles. With the increasing financial situation, the purpose of this thesis is to research a surrogate third party firm and determine to what degree South Korea and other foreign military sales customers obtain the best value for their money for follow-on support item procurements. South Korea has participated in the Parts and Repair Ordering System program since its inception. However, South Korea has received little, if any, feedback regarding lead time and cost performance from the Air Force Security Assistance Command. This study analyzed two variables, lead time and total unit cost, and compared these variables in two procurement systems to discover which one provides the best lead time performance for the total average unit price. The results of this analysis concluded that our surrogate third party was faster, though not significantly; however, this came at a high price for follow on support item procurement.