LTC2 (long-term costing)

LTC2 stands for long-term costing. It is an entry in the Glossary of NATO acronyms and abbreviations, where it appears as "LTC2, long-term costing". The same glossary gives the French equivalent as "estimation de coûts à long terme."

The abbreviation is a NATO terminology entry. The glossary associates it with NASG, the standardisation group named in the entry. NATO keeps its official terminology in a database called NATOTerm, which contains non-classified military terminology and non-military terminology relevant to the Alliance.

How NATO lists LTC2 in its acronym glossary

The glossary is a reference document that records the accepted expansion of each abbreviation in English and French. For LTC2, it records three things: the English expansion, the French equivalent and the associated NATO body. That is the full extent of the entry. It does not set out a costing method, a template or a deliverable.

NATO also publishes NATOTerm, its official terminology database. A reader who needs to confirm how NATO uses a term in a current document can check it there.

LTC2 compared with LTC1 and life-cycle costing

Two nearby terms are easy to confuse with LTC2.

• LTC1 is a separate glossary entry. NATO uses it for "longitudinal time code", which has nothing to do with costing.
• Life-cycle costing (LCC) is a different term from LTC2. The NATO Logistics Handbook describes it as the total of direct, indirect, recurring, non-recurring and related costs incurred, or estimated, in designing, developing, producing, operating, maintaining and supporting a major system over its anticipated life.

The numeral matters. LTC2 is the costing entry and LTC1 is the time-code entry. When a document uses either form, check the expansion before drawing conclusions.

Life-cycle cost estimating in Canadian defence publications

Canadian defence material uses the broader idea of costing across a long period. A Department of National Defence publication on the Next Generation Fighter Capability, available through publications.gc.ca, describes a life-cycle cost estimate as covering costs from initial concept through operations, retirement and disposal. It calls this a "cradle to grave" approach.

That publication does not call the estimate LTC2. It uses the term life-cycle cost estimate, and suppliers should read it on those terms.

The Government of Canada also publishes the Practitioner's Guide for Procurement Pricing on CanadaBuys. It addresses costing rates and research and development costs in general terms. It does not define or use LTC2.

What LTC2 means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

LTC2 is a NATO terminology entry, so a bid team that sees it in a NATO document should read it as long-term costing and use the NATO glossary as the reference. Do not treat it as interchangeable with life-cycle costing, which NATO defines separately.

For a Canadian solicitation, follow the wording of the tender documents. If a request asks for a life-cycle cost estimate, price and document the full span the request describes. The DND publication frames that span as concept through to retirement and disposal. If a solicitation uses the label LTC2, the solicitation itself will say what it requires, and any questions should go to the contracting authority during the question period.