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Reduction in Total Ownership Cost, or RTOC, aims to reduce the cost of products and processes used to acquire, operate, and sustain weapon systems as well as infrastructure costs. The purpose is to realize significant cost reductions in order to free up money to help fund urgent modernization priorities. Current budgets no longer increase at a rate sufficient to support modernization requirements. Yet at the same time, the Department of Defense (DoD) is faced with increasing Operation and Support (O&S) costs for its aging weapon systems. RTOC will work to break out of this cycle by facilitating cost reduction across the DoD and reinvest the savings into force modernization. This paper will draw particular attention to the importance of establishing an integrated implementation plan and energizing individual programs to aggressively pursue credible RTOC initiatives. Tracking individual initiatives to a baseline and targeting high cost drivers will also be addressed. To assist the program manager, a checklist of RTOC metrics will be discussed to determine whether a candidate initiative has what it takes to yield a high return on investment (ROI) and produce significant savings down the road. The high visibility within government to reduce program costs coupled with the scrutiny of justifying system effectiveness puts RTOC in the forefront as the best tool for tackling cost reduction.