Which statement about the relationship between reliability and maintainability and support requirements is true?

• A. It increases required logistics support
• B. It reduces required logistics support as reliability and maintainability improve
• C. It has no effect on logistics requirements
• D. It affects only initial deployment costs

Answer: (D)

Improving reliability and maintainability directly lowers the ongoing logistics and support burden over a system’s life. When a system is more reliable, it fails less often; when it is more maintainable, failures that do occur are repaired faster. Together, these improvements reduce the need for spares, maintenance actions, diagnostic tools, and downtime, which lowers the required logistics support and overall sustainment costs as the system operates. It’s not just about the initial deployment costs—the benefits extend throughout the life cycle, easing ongoing maintenance, supply, and readiness needs. The idea that these improvements would increase logistics support, or have no effect, or affect only initial costs, doesn’t fit how reliability, maintainability, and support interact in practice.