To keep military resources in satisfactory condition, maintenance, repair, and overhaul of equipment and facilities must be carefully managed. For decades, RAND has been conducting research and analysis that provides decisionmakers with broad perspectives and substantive recommendations on all aspects of defense logistics and support.
REPORT
Nearly all Air Force electronics are tested and repaired using automatic test systems, most of which were designed and built for specific aging weapon systems and are beset by increasing hardware and software obsolescence. The Air Force is planning to modernize these capabilities by rehosting the testing on modern, common families of test equipment. This report focuses on the economic aspect of the rehosting decision.
REPORT
When a weapon system ceases production, the tooling not needed for sustainment that cannot be repurposed must either be disposed of or stored. Storage is not free, but system-specific tooling might become necessary for a restart, and starting from scratch can be expensive, although some tools cost more to store than they are worth. The authors examine these tooling retention issues for the C-17 cargo aircraft.
REPORT
This technical report describes the benefits of reallocating certain maintenance activities between mission-generation locations and a repair network, options to support the C-130, and consolidating repair network activities to centralized repair facilities. The report also provides an initial assessment of maintenance concepts that integrate wing-level and depot-level maintenance processes.
REPORT
The Air Force is considering upgrades to the KC-10 in several areas: avionics, command and control, multipoint refueling, defensive systems, and compatibility with night-vision systems. An assessment of options to upgrade the KC-10 weighed the costs and potential benefits of the upgrades against demands in homeland defense, theater employment, deployment, and air bridge operations and KC-10 roles (refueling only, airlift only, or…
REPORT
This functional needs analysis is the second in a trio of documents that the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System requires for a capabilities-based assessment of intratheater airlift capabilities. This volume examines the ability of current assets to deliver required services, using a set of three mission areas and two vignettes as test cases.
REPORT
This functional solution analysis is the third in a trio of documents that the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System requires for a capabilities-based assessment of intratheater airlift capabilities. The analysis examined nonmateriel options for preserving airlift capacity by delaying the need to recapitalize the fleet. Without viable, enduring nonmateriel solutions, there is a need to evaluate materiel solutions.
REPORT
This functional area analysis is the first in a trio that the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System requires for a capabilities-based assessment of intratheater airlift capabilities. This volume lays out the tasks, conditions, and standards for the intratheater airlift fleet, derived from high-level guidance, various operational concepts, and recent operational experience, as well as the key variables for later analyses.
REPORT
The UK Ministry of Defence's Fixed Wing Sector Strategy Board commissioned RAND Europe to assist in the development of a strategy and sustainment plan for the military fixed wing sector.
RESEARCH BRIEF
The UK currently has the industrial skills needed to develop, produce and maintain its military aircraft, but predicted future demand for design engineering activity is insufficient to sustain a number of key skills beyond the 2010-2019 decade.
REPORT
Recent Office of the Secretary of Defense planning guidance directs the services to plan for high levels of engagement and deployed operations, although their nature, locations, durations, and intensity may be unknown. This book synthesizes the results of the initial phases of a study of the basic issues and premises on which the Air Force plans, organizes, and operates its logistics enterprise.
REPORT
The U.S. Air Force's KC-10 air refueling fleet has been in service for 25 years without a major avionics upgrade. Without modernization, the KC-10 will not be in compliance with upcoming air traffic management mandates regulating the minimum allowed communication, navigation, and surveillance capabilities.
REPORT
Analyses demonstrate how F-16 and KC-135 aircraft maintenance units can be reconfigured to support mission generation operations, with heavy maintenance such as aircraft phase inspections reassigned to a network of centralized repair facilities. This approach identifies options that either exceed current maintenance capabilities at current cost levels or meet required capability levels at reduced cost.
REPORT
Much of the training for the engineering watchstanders of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that is currently done underway could be done in port. Training could also be done on simulators at considerable savings in time, money, fuel, and ship wear and tear. This monograph discusses how training simulator use could improve engineering watchstanders' proficiency before ships go to sea, reserving time at sea for fine-tuning the training.
REPORT
The findings presented here reexamine capabilities-based programming by introducing a new definition of capability metrics and a new set of algorithms for building and evaluating programs. The tools provide the programmer with a means to quantitatively and reproducibly develop programming options in light of an uncertain future, serving as a means to express capabilities and risks of resource allocations in terms of national planning…
REPORT
RAND developed a methodology to help understand and explain the differences between U.S. Air National Guard and active component aircraft maintenance productivity. This research focuses on maintenance options for supporting associate units, where the goal of the associate unit is to produce trained pilots in the most efficient manner possible.
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.
REPORT
Given manpower reductions in the active duty Air Force and availability of highly trained Air National Guard (ANG) personnel, some missions could be transferred from the active component to the ANG without significant cost to the total force. Portions of missions such as Predator operations and support, air mobility command and control, Commander of Air Force forces staffing, and base-level intermediate maintenance could benefit from ANG…
REPORT
Aging U.S. Air Force fleets have deterioration problems, resulting in increased maintenance workloads. Programmed depot maintenance (PDM) is significant, requiring 2,000 to 50,000 labor hours and material. RAND developed the PDM Capacity Assessment Tool (PDMCAT), applied it to the KC-135 PDM process, with three alternative forecasts of future workload and two fleet-size scenarios, to inform aircraft availability and resource allocation…
REPORT
The U.S. Air Force is grappling with the challenge of aging fleets and the optimal time to replace them. This monograph examines commercial aviation data to draw inferences about aging aircraft that may be relevant to the Air Force. It focuses on “aging effects” — i.e., how aircraft maintenance costs change as aircraft grow older. Although commercial aircraft clearly differ from military aircraft, the aging-effect…
REPORT
“Sustainment surge” describes the increase in weapon systems repair activity brought on by the operational demands of wartime or contingency operations. In light of the U.S. military’s transformations in force planning over the past 25 years, the authors of this report look at how the nature of surge has changed, whether legislation has hindered management in developing effective and efficient ways to manage surge, and…
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