The analysis of several government defense and intelligence agency large-scale acquisition programs that experienced significant cost and schedule growth shows that several critical factors need to be addressed in the preacquisition phase of the acquisition cycle. These include overzealous advocacy, technology readiness levels, life-cycle cost, schedule details, requirements maturity, acquisition and contract strategy, program office personnel tenure and experience, risk management, systems engineering, and trade studies. The results of this study–which incorporated data from industry responses, government and industry executive interviews, numerous studies, and reports–indicate that early preacquisition activities executed in a rigorous fashion can significantly reduce the risk of cost and schedule growth. In this paper, the root causes of the cost and schedule growth are discussed as well as techniques and alternatives to improve program performance.

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This paper is a comprehensive study of all far-UV spectra obtained with the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite of the symbiotic star R Aquarii (R Aqr) covering a 13 yr period between 1979 and 1992. We have analyzed the ultraviolet emission for the compact H II region and the NE and SW extended "jetlike" filamentary structures. The results of our ultraviolet analysis indicate that the H II region and features A, B, and D of the NE jet are increasing in intensity, while the SW counterjet, feature A', has declined in intensity. We have found much stronger evidence that the high ionization lines of N v A.A-1238, 1240 and He II A.1640 in the H II region and NE jet have steadily increased over the entire period of IUE observations. This result could indicate that the ionized region is increasing in excitation. We have found that the observations of the NE jet are consistent with a decreasing electron temperature and increasing line-emitting region, which suggest that the strengthening of emission-line fluxes may be a result of an expanding emitting volume in a post-shocked region. Low-resolution absolute line intensities and wavelengths for the most prominent emission lines in the A.A-1200-3200 wavelength range have been tabulated. In addition, we present plots of the total ultraviolet flux (A.A-1200-3200) and absolute line intensities as a function of time to discern the temporal variability of R Aqr. These plots indicate that the far-UV emission from the NE jet is not variable on a "'1.5 yr timescale as suggested by Kafatos, Michalitsianos, & Hollis. Moreover, we find that the variations in the far-UV emission in R Aqr are not coupled to the 386 day pulsation period of the Mira. Finally, successive ionization levels of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and silicon of the NE jet are compared with each other to probe the nature of the ionization source in the NE jet. High-and low-resolution ultraviolet spectra were used to calculate the properties of the emission nebula and hot component. We determined electron densities of ne = 4 x 10 5 em-3 (H II region) and ne = 6 x 10 4 em-3 (NE jet), electron temperatures of T;, "' 20,000 K (H II region) and a high value of 1;, ~ 26,000 K

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