Economic Advantage of Speed for Non-Combat Military Aircraft

Increasing aircraft speed provides operational and economic benefits to the operators. Completing the mission sooner not only improves operational effectiveness, but may also reduce the total mission costs. Often the hourly costs may increase with extra speed, but not necessarily the total cost, since the mission is executed in less time. Both the operational benefits and costs depend on the mission flown, making “a priori” calculations of value (benefit per dollar) impossible. Consequently military aircraft designers and operators lack critical information when trying to create a business case for investing in technology that improves speed. Part of that critical information is the cost savings derived from increased aircraft speed. The other part is the operational benefit. This paper focuses solely on the economics and presents ways to estimate the savings provided by speed, which could be used to offset any possible increases in operating costs of the faster aircraft.