Ensuring that a modern military has the appropriate personnel and capabilities is the key goal of military force planning. RAND research on such topics as military wages, support for military families, troop diversity, and reenlistment rates ensures that U.S. and allied militaries are well aware of issues related to career field management and personnel retention and recruitment.
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RAND National Security Research Division;
RAND Project AIR FORCE;
RAND Arroyo Center;
Homeland Security and Defense Center
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America's all-volunteer military has been an overwhelming success, but after four years of war with mounting casualties in Iraq, continuing insurgency attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, and multiple deployments throughout the world, the military has experienced recruiting shortfalls for the first time since the late 1970s.
News Releases (11)
Since World War II, the United States has relied on a global network of military bases and forces to protect its interests and those of its allies. But the international environment has changed greatly and economic concerns have risen, leading some to debate just what America's role should now be in the world.
A new pay structure proposed for members of the U.S. military reserves would be more similar to that of active duty members, cost less than the current system and would not adversely affect recruitment and retention.
Army Reserve Component units experience widespread personnel turnover as they approach mobilization and deployment, prompting many units to schedule intensive training just before mobilization in order to get all soldiers prepared for deployment.
The increased use of cash bonuses by the U.S. Department of Defense to encourage military enlistment and reenlistment had a positive effect on recruiting and retention in the armed forces.
Although U.S. Army deployments have been linked positively to the likelihood of reenlisting for much of the past decade, by 2006 the mounting burden of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan reached the point where deployment had a negative effect on reenlistment.
As the U.S. military continues to rely on the National Guard and Reserve for overseas deployments, making sure their families are adequately prepared for those missions is critical.
Lower high school graduation rates and higher rates of obesity are two of the reasons that many Hispanics are denied entry into the U.S. military.
In preparing for possible future military interventions, the United States needs to shift substantial resources to the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development, and military-civilian efforts must be integrated from top to bottom.
The U.S. military should reassess its child care system to look for ways to make it better fit the needs of military families and more effectively meet recruitment, readiness and retention goals.
Most U.S. military reservists see their earnings increase when they are called to active duty, contrary to the common belief that the earnings of reservists fall when they are activated.
September 14, 2006 News Release: RAND Book Calls All-Volunteer U.S. Military a Success, But Warns Current Wars Pose Challenge to Future Recruiting.
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