Members of a country's military reserves pursue full-time civilian careers and are not on active duty, though they may be called upon at times of emergency. RAND provides military and political decisionmakers with objective research and recommendations on how to attract, train, and maintain an effective military reserve force.
Research Brief
U.S. Army Special Operations Command wants to enhance the contributions of Army National Guard Special Forces and move toward making them a purpose-driven force, that is, organized and employed to take advantage of their particular experience.
Report
This report analyzes reform of the reserve retirement system, discusses the goals and obstacles to reform, and provides a quantitative assessment of the reserve retention and cost effects of possible reform proposals.
Report
Examines features of the U.S. Army Reserve and Army National Guard's Employer Partnership Program, which seeks to strengthen relationships with reservists and their civilian employers.
Report
Every uniformed service member must complete general military training requirements. This report examines training requirements and ways to standardize those requirements and reduce the training burden.
Report
Analyzes U.S. Army National Guard (ARNG) Special Forces capabilities and studies how they could be put to use in future deployments.
Periodical
Society pays for high school dropouts' increased dependency on welfare, increased criminal activity, and decreased engagement in community service. The benefits of the National Guard's Youth ChalleNGe Program more than repay society's investment in it.
Blog
Adequate compensation is critical to recruiting and retaining an all-volunteer force—in peacetime and wartime alike. To assess the effectiveness of U.S. military pay and benefits, the president directs a review of military compensation every four years. Four RAND studies contributed to this review.
Report
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.
Report
The military's TRICARE Reserve Select program offers reservists the option of purchasing health insurance through the military on terms that compare favorably with typical employer benefits, but the program does not appear to be effectively targeting those most likely to be uninsured.
News Release
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.
Report
Surveys the work of the RAND National Security Research Division from the spring of 2011 through the winter of 2012.
Research Brief
Describes options for Department of Defense policy that would help the reserve components of the U.S. military achieve higher levels of individual medical readiness, including dental readiness.
Report
Provides options for Department of Defense policy that would help the reserve components of the U.S. military achieve higher levels of individual medical readiness.
Report
Assesses how Army active and reserve forces are used, to analyze policy options that would improve utilization of reserve forces.
Report
Reallocating C-130 maintenance workloads between mission-generation units and centralized repair facilities offers efficiency and effectiveness benefits to the Air Force, and integrated maintenance concepts may offer additional benefits.
Report
The U.S. Army National Guard and Reserve have more lieutenants but fewer captains than they are authorized to have. This monograph looks at the company-grade officer shortfall, explores solutions, and makes recommendations.
Report
Examines how active component (AC) and reserve component (RC) bonuses interact -- that is, the extent to which RC enlistment bonuses draw service members away from the AC, and AC bonuses reduce prior service enlistment in the Selected Reserve.
Report
When U.S. Army Reserve Component units experience a surge of personnel turbulence as they approach deployment, units must repeat some training, making pre-mobilization preparation less efficient and potentially increasing the extent of training that must be accomplished after mobilization.
Research Brief
A study of Army Reserve Component (RC) units finds that personnel instability is widespread, driven mostly by soldier losses and nondeployers, and affects training prior to deployment.
Multimedia
In this Congressional Briefing held on November 9, 2009, senior economist David Loughran presents findings about whether reservists who served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer economic hardship in their post-deployment years because of lost civilian work experience, injury, and other difficulties adjusting to civilian work life.
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