A statistical analysis of Los Angeles class OPTAR expenditures between Pacific Fleet homeports

Abstract

For the past several years, average OPTAR expenditures for Los Angeles class submarines have differed between their three homeports in the Pacific Ocean. In an attempt to justify expenditures or find efficiencies, three statistical analyses were performed to verify these differences. OPTAR data were cross-referenced with expenditure information from the NCCA's VAMOSC database. The database produced the data set which consisted of samples from three OPTAR populations: Total OPTAR, Repair OPTAR and Other OPTAR. These population samples were analyzed using the Student-t test, the Wilcoxon rank-sum test and regression with panel data. The main analysis was done comparing the samples from different ports. A follow-on analysis was completed using schedule data as an input. Statistically significant differences were discovered between homeports within the Other OPTAR population. In the follow on analysis, using regression with panel data, correlations were found between OPTAR expenditures and ship schedules.