Logistics and Infrastructure
Overview
RAND analyses help policymakers understand how to structure responsive logistics systems and develop policies and strategies to create an effective and efficient defense infrastructure.
Organization
Research on logistics and defense infrastructure issues is conducted within each of RAND's national security research divisions and collaboratively across the RAND research community.
Key Research Centers:
- RAND Arroyo Center, the RAND Army Research Division: Military Logistics Program
- RAND Project AIR FORCE: Resource Management Program
- RAND National Security Research Division: Forces and Resources Policy Center
Featured Findings
Related Publications
Improving the Cost Estimation of Space Systems — 2008
Why have the costs of acquiring space systems been so high? What are the sources of the problems? To answer these questions, RAND researchers examined the sources of cost growth of Air Force space systems and undertook an extensive study of two space systems – the Space Based Infrared System—High (SBIRS) and the Global Positioning System (GPS) – including an evaluation of their sources of cost growth, an assessment of their approaches to technical risk assessment, and an examination of their acquisition policy adaptations and industrial base environments. The researchers recommend independent program assessment for space systems that emphasizes technical and program factors, and a modified organizational structure that maintains cost analyst independence. They also summarize the cost estimating best practices of several other government organizations.
The Defense Acquisition Workforce: An Analysis of Personnel Trends Relevant to Policy, 1993-2006 — 2008
The defense acquisition workforce includes more than 130,000 military and civilian personnel responsible for providing a wide range of acquisition, technology, and logistics support to the nation's warfighters. This report summarizes workforce analyses that RAND has undertaken in support of the Defense Acquisition University, which is responsible for strategic human capital management of that workforce. It covers the civilian acquisition workforce, the careers of acquisition workforce senior executive service members, and the military acquisition workforce and its implications for the larger workforce. It also describes an inventory projection model that uses data on the civilian acquisition workforce as a key input. The authors conclude that better definition and tracking of the acquisition workforce would improve workforce planning and that workforce analysis is only one step in an overall strategic human capital planning effort.
Insights on Aircraft Programmed Depot Maintenance: An Analysis of F-15 PDM — 2008
This technical report describes the F-15 programmed depot maintenance (PDM) process as performed at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center (WR-ALC) in FYs 2004-2006. WR-ALC has a sequential process that F-15s follow when undergoing PDM. The average WR-ALC F-15 PDM visit runs behind schedule. This problem was reduced in recent years, largely because planned durations became more realistic. Durations also seem longer because customers do not pick aircraft up as soon as they finish PDM. Pickup lags for F-15s based overseas are expected, because they are typically flown overseas in pairs to make more efficient use of aerial tanker refueling. However, even for continental United States-based aircraft, it was not uncommon for operators to wait a week or more to retrieve their completed F-15s. Finally, the number of days spent at specific steps in the PDM process varies considerably, and, because PDM does not have a particularly high priority, it can wait a long time for parts. This leads to aircraft moving through PDM steps out of sequence, with missing parts catching up with the aircraft when they become available, or to cannibalization, in which aircraft that recently entered PDM provide cannibalized parts for aircraft that are scheduled to leave sooner.
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