Director, Force Modernization and Employment Program, RAND Project Air Force; Senior Engineer, RAND; Professor of Policy Analysis, RAND School of Public Policy
Sherrill Lingel is program director for Force Modernization and Employment within RAND Project Air Force (PAF), a senior engineer at RAND, and a professor of policy analysis at the RAND School of Public Policy. She recently led work on command and control and battle management for joint all-domain operations (JADO) in the Pacific. Last year she led the Next Generation Air Lift (NGAL) Capabilities Based Assessment (CBA) for Air Mobility Command (completed April 2025). She spent three years as a field analyst reporting directly to Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) leadership. She was a department director of Technology and Applied Sciences at RAND. Lingel conducted research on Air Moving Target Indications (AMTI) for the Pacific theater and Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) for Agile Combat Employment (ACE) in Europe preceded by work on ACE in a contested electromagnetic spectrum environment in Europe. She also led a team providing an independent assessment of the Department of the Air Force's ISR flight plan’s alignment with the 2018 National Defense Strategy. She led research on artificial intelligence applications for JADC2. Her research includes complexity in great power competition and warfare, multi-domain operations, JADC2, ACE, ISR capabilities for highly contested environments, and air and missile defense. Before joining RAND, she worked for the Norwegian Institute for Water Research in Norway.
Lingel earned a Ph.D. in civil engineering and an M.S. in aeronautics and astronautics engineering from the University of Washington, and a B.S. in aeronautical engineering from the University of Virginia.
Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering, University of Washington; M.S. in aeronautics and astronautics, University of Washington; B.S. in aeronautical engineering, University of Virginia
