Mark A. Lorell

Biography

Mark A. Lorell is a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Lorell specializes in weapon system acquisition policies, defense industrial base issues, international weapon system collaboration, defense trade, and weapons procurement and industrial base policies of allies. He is the lead author or coauthor of more than 40 RAND reports and books. He is also the author of a variety of published articles, book chapters, and a widely reviewed commercial book on the collaborative development of the FS-X fighter with Japan (Troubled Partnership: A History of U.S.–Japan Collaboration on the FS-X Fighter, Transaction Publishers Rutgers University, New Brunswick and London, 1996). Lorell's current work focuses on optimal weapon system acquisition and cost analysis policies, with an emphasis on unmanned aerial systems, tactical fighter aircraft, and space systems. In February 2008, Lorell received the RAND President's Award in recognition of "his significant collection of research on strategies and processes for acquiring complex defense systems, both in the United States and other countries, and his production of numerous reports that are now standard military-history reference sources." Lorell received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington.