ASSESSING THE VALUE OF U.S. ARMY INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Authors: Jefferson Marquis, Richard Darilek, Jasen Castillo, Cathryn Thurston, Anny Wong, Cynthia Huger, Andrea Mejia, Jennifer Moroney, Brian Nichiporuk, and Brett Steele
A number of important steps have been taken in recent years to improve the planning and management of Army International Activities (AIA). Still, a need remains, and is widely recognized, for a high-level assessment mechanism to allocate AIA resources more efficiently, execute AIA programs more effectively, and highlight the contributions of AIA to the National Military Strategy, the DoD Security Cooperation Guidance, and The Army Plan. This report presents a framework for assessing the value of the Army’s non-combat interactions with other militaries and provides an overview of AIA programs and establishes their connection to the U.S. government’s current strategy for security cooperation.
THE CLOSED-LOOP PLANNING SYSTEM FOR WEAPON SYSTEM READINESS
Authors: Richard Hillestad, Robert Kerchner, Louis Miller, Adam Resnick, and Hyman Shulman
The U.S. Air Force does not have an effective way of allocating limited funding for depot-level repair across weapon systems and calculating the readiness implications of such allocations. This report addresses this problem by developing a methodology, called the “Closed-Loop” Planning System, that estimates the effect of depot repair funding allocations on aircraft availability. It describes the shortcomings in the current system and also illustrates the application of a prototype of the new planning system using a subset of real data from Air Force depot-level repair.
EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) PROGRAM
Authors: Bruce Held, Thomas Edison, Shari Lawrence Pfleeger, Philip Anton, and John Clancy
The broad goal of the Department of Defense (DoD) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is “to harness the innovative talents of our nation’s small technology companies for U.S. military and economic strength.” This report examined the DoD SBIR program to assess to what extent DoD is funding small businesses and to determine whether the program is indeed stimulating innovation both in the military and commercially. In turn, the report recommends policy options for making the DoD SBIR program more responsive to the needs of the department and to the broader defense mission.
COMMENTARY
The following is a list of national security related commentary pieces that RAND researchers have contributed to newspapers in the past month. To retrieve past commentary pieces, please visit RAND's commentary page.
N KOREA POLICY OPTIONS
Author: Bruce Bennett (United Press International)
Read the Commentary »
TOKYO'S LEVERAGE OVER PYONGYANG
Author: Charles Wolf, Jr. (Asian Wall Street Journal)
Read the Commentary »
GRAND STRATEGY FOR THE MIDDLE EAST
Author: Ambassador Robert Hunter (San Diego Union-Tribune)
Read the Commentary »
THE EU SHOULD PUT UP OR SHUT UP IN AFGHANISTAN
Author: Ambassador Robert Hunter (Project Syndicate)
Read the Commentary »
GATES'S OPPORTUNITY AT DEFENSE
Author: Gregory Treverton (Washingtonpost.com)
Read the Commentary »
WINNING BACK THE TURKS
Author: F. Stephen Larrabee (International Herald Tribune)
Read the Commentary »
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