The portion of the national budget that is allocated to defense covers salaries, training, and health care; maintains and purchases arms, equipment, and facilities; funds military operations; and funds the development of new technologies. RAND analyzes defense expenditures and advises military and civilian decisionmakers on options to maximize the effectiveness, continuity, and innovation of the nation's military force.
Report
Assesses the effects of vehicle age, operational tempo (OPTEMPO), deployment location, and reset on the mission-critical failures and maintenance costs of selected Army vehicle fleets.
Announcement
To celebrate our first 60 years, we created 60 Ways RAND Has Made a Difference, an online book to illustrate our most notable contributions. On our 65th birthday, we provide five of the most recent ways in which we at RAND are proud to have made a difference.
Report
Examines the British, French, and German armies' approaches to accommodating significant budget cuts while attempting to sustain their commitment to full spectrum operations.
Past Event
At an event on April 9, 2013, former Defense Secretary Harold Brown will discuss how to align America's interests, values, and defense budget to meet the nation's current challenges.
Report
RAND assessed the savings potential of reconfiguring the U.S. Air Force's combat-coded F-35s into larger squadrons and adjusting the Primary Aerospace Vehicle Authorized mix across the Active and Reserve Components.
Report
RAND assessed the savings potential of reconfiguring the U.S. Air Force's combat-coded F-35s into larger squadrons and adjusting the Primary Aerospace Vehicle Authorized mix across the Active and Reserve Components.
Commentary
Even in the face of a budgetary spending cap and the ever-looming possibility of new cuts, NASA continues investing in a robust and diverse human spaceflight program. But with fiscal uncertainty expected to continue, it should consider reordering its spending priorities.
Commentary
Will any good come out of the Pentagon's sequester-mandated spending cuts? If nothing else, it will drive folks to think the unthinkable, says Charles Nemfakos.
Blog
For its recent feature “The Future of War,” Foreign Policy magazine surveyed 71 leading authorities on today’s global conflicts – including many current and former analysts from the RAND Corporation – and used their responses to rank future security threats.
Report
This paper describes a new approach and associated search schemes for optimization under uncertainty. Analysts can apply this method to a problem with a significantly larger number of decision variables, uncertain parameters, and uncertain scenarios.
Commentary
China's decision to expand defense spending also carries clues about the Party's need to keep the military happy, the new leadership's confidence and new President Xi Jinping's ability to put his own stamp on policy from the start, writes Scott Harold.
Report
The Department of Defense constructs, operates, and maintains numerous facilities. This report shares RAND's description and assessment of the process used to obtain life-cycle cost-effective facilities and how it affects construction options.
Report
Examines the United States Army's use of capability portfolio management in acquisitions.
Blog
The 2013 SOTU address will be remembered for its impassioned call for greater gun control just two months after Sandy Hook. But President Obama's second-term agenda can be characterized by its sheer breadth, reflecting the broad range of policy challenges facing the U.S. today.
Periodical
While not advocating further defense cuts, RAND researchers offer three strategies to cut roughly $400-$500 billion from U.S. defense programs over the next decade without crippling the force.
Periodical
At a time when the United States is expecting its European allies to shoulder more of the burden of defending Europe and its interests, all members of NATO must learn to do more with less.
Commentary
The prudent approach is to decide on a strategic direction that provides a framework for prioritizing which forces and equipment the United States should preserve and determining which can be trimmed or eliminated with limited risk to security, write Stuart Johnson and Irv Blickstein.
Commentary
Budget reductions must be applied in ways that pose the least risk to national security. We need to shrink force structure carefully, reduce or delay procurement of some weapons systems, streamline management and cut personnel costs, writes Harold Brown.
Commentary
The urgency with which the fiscal cliff question must be addressed should not excuse faulty calculations when it comes to the U.S. military's operational and personnel needs, write Tim Bonds and Lauren Skrabala.
Blog
During a discussion with RAND president and CEO Michael Rich at RAND's Politics Aside event, Ret. Gen. Peter Chiarelli says budget cuts could strike the military unevenly, hurting vital programs.
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