Functioning as both warships and airbases, aircraft carriers are essential components of a nation’s military presence and power, but they are also expensive to acquire, deploy, and modernize. To inform decision making about carrier use — in combat as well as noncombat situations — RAND studies carrier availability, maintenance cycles, crew training, and other key factors.
REPORT
The Secretary of Defense's plans to shift Navy aircraft carrier acquisition to every five years should have little impact on force structure and the industrial base in the next decade—but after that, the force structure shrinks, as does the chance of meeting goals for the number of deployed aircraft carriers.
REPORT
U.S. Navy aircraft carrier fleets must balance the timing of maintenance, training, and deployment with presence and surge demands. An evaluation of deployment scenarios examines the feasibility of different cycle lengths, their effect on carrier forward presence, and their impact on shipyard workloads.
RESEARCH BRIEF
This research brief summarizes RAND's analysis of the feasibility of different cycle lengths and their effect on the operational availability of Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. The authors also examine cycle length impact on shipyard workloads.
REPORT
The Fleet Response Plan is a U.S. Navy program to enhance the operational availability of the aircraft carrier fleet. This report describes program modeling that varies the time between depot availabilities and the size of the depot work packages, to estimate its effect on the maintenance industrial base and the operational availability of the aircraft carrier fleet.
RESEARCH BRIEF
This research brief describes the range of new capabilities that U.S. aircraft carriers will require for combat and noncombat operations in the next 20 to 30 years.
REPORT
Explores new and nontraditional ways that the United States might be able to employ aircraft carriers in pursuit of traditional and emerging military and homeland defense missions. Summarizes the insights of two Concept Options Groups (COGs)-small groups of experienced military and civilian experts, defense analysts, and potential users who work together to identify promising ways to employ military might in nontraditional ways.
REPORT
The combat leverage of U.S. carrier strike groups has improved qualitatively since Sept. 11, 2001, with carrier-based fighters conducting coordinated missions in areas of Afghanistan and Iraq well beyond coastal reaches. Future plans hold promise for further advancements.
REPORT
The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) is preparing for the construction of the Royal Navy’s two new Future Aircraft Carriers (CVFs), slated to enter service in 2012 and 2015, respectively. The CVFs could be the largest warships ever built in the United Kingdom. At the request of the MOD, the RAND Corporation looked at the risks of current contractor plans and estimated the cost implications of using alternative…
REPORT
In 2012 and 2015, respectively, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence will replace its three Invincible-class aircraft carriers with two Future Aircraft Carriers (CVFs), the largest ships ever constructed for the Royal Navy. The research described in this report focuses on possible reductions in whole-life costs and manpower requirements of the carriers.
REPORT
The Navy asked RAND to study the trade-offs involved in accelerating the production of its new CVN 21 carrier while hastening the retirement of some of the Nimitz fleet. RAND compared the Navy’s existing plan with several alternatives and discovered that the Navy could modernize its fleet with the higher-performance, lower-cost CVN 21 at a cost premium no greater than 12 percent over its current plan.
COMMENTARY
The Atlantic Monthly Magazine features a compilation of ten short essays written by experts at RAND, collectively titled Headlines Over the Horizon. The RAND authors examined developments in international and military affairs drawing little attention today that are expected to be major issues in the next three to five years.
REPORT
The present practice of fully funding aircraft carriers in a single year causes spikes of several billion dollars in the budget every fourth or fifth year, and it complicates the funding of other programs in those years. RAND assessed the advantages and disadvantages of three alternative strategies: incremental funding, advance appropriations, and a revolving fund. Each strategy can reduce budget spikes but introduces other risks to each…
REPORT
The midlife refueling/complex overhaul (RCOH) of the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) took five years to plan and three years to execute. Numerous budget and work-requirements changes and a four-month labor-union strike during the overhaul caused the project's completion to slip and resulted in significant cost growth. This report analyzes the planning and execution of the CVN 68 RCOH to identify changes in processes and procedures that could lead to…
REPORT
The U.S. Aircraft Carrier Industrial Base: Force Structure, Cost, Schedule, and Technology Issues for CVN77
REPORT
The purpose of this hearing was to receive testimony on the Department of the Navy's shipbuilding development and procurement programs as reflected in the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 1998 and the Future Years Defense Program.
REPORT
Proposed automation of the DE-1052 class destroyer escort is analyzed as an investment problem.
PEOPLE
Senior Operations Research Analyst
M.S. in operations research, University of Pennsylvania
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