Christopher G. Pernin

So Many Questions, So Little Time for Pacific Logistics

The United States has been struggling to “pivot to the Pacific” for over a decade, and one of the major missing pieces is logistics. It is critical that the logistics underpinning a credible military deterrent be figured out now.

The Problem of Intra-Theater Lift: Moving Things Around in the Pacific Area of Responsibility

The U.S. joint force's ability to move materiel and people across oceans and continents is unique among militaries. But there are challenges all along the supply chain, addressed by different agencies and military commands in a complicated set of processes, and a collective reluctance to assume responsibility for the mission.

Building Interoperability for European Defense

To make the most out of declining defense budgets, the U.S. needs to engage European forces to build interoperability that would enable joint operations to deter and defeat potential adversaries, even with little advance notice. But building interoperable units has often proved difficult even among the friendliest of nations.

The More Options, the Better

Preserving the ability of the United States to choose how it will respond to global events is essential. And maintaining options is critical to the calculus.

Rethinking U.S. Force Planning

While the renewed interest in crisis response forces by the military services is welcome in these times of uncertainty, forces that are permanently assigned to a geographic combatant command and based in a region continue to offer distinct benefits. RAND research has shown that an overseas presence enhances contingency responsiveness in most cases.

Pentagon's Reliance on Europe Is 'Wishful Thinking'

There needs to be more frank and precise thinking about the kind of support allies are able and willing to provide. Counting on Europeans even just to pull as much weight as they have in the past is an increasingly doubtful proposition.

Calling for a Time-Out in the Army Intelligence Software Debate

The Army's Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) program has been getting much attention from Congress, and its future was the subject of a heated exchange between the Army's Chief of Staff General Raymond Odierno and Representative Duncan Hunter in May.

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An Analysis of Alternative Approaches to Measuring Multinational Interoperability: Early Development of the Army Interoperability Measurement System (AIMS)

Researchers conducted an analysis of alternatives of interoperability measurement systems to support the U.S. Army in achieving interoperability with partners. Researchers identified a new approach, the Army Interoperability Measurement System.

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Chasing Multinational Interoperability: Benefits, Objectives, and Strategies

National defense policies have focused on the importance of multinational interoperability to meeting U.S. defense goals. By recounting both their literature review and interviews, the authors describe potential benefits of interoperability.

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Targeted Interoperability: A New Imperative for Multinational Operations

This report looks at what motivations exist for interoperability and defines a reasonable framework from which to work if and when interoperability needs and investments meet strategic language in the United States.

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Building Armies, Building Nations: Toward a New Approach to Security Force Assistance

This report proposes an alternative approach to Security Force Assistance (SFA) derived from an interpretation of nation-building and legitimacy formation grounded in history.

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The Global Landpower Network: Recommendations for Strengthening Army Engagement

The U.S. Army's global landpower network concept integrates, sustains, and advances the Army's efforts to meet U.S. national security guidance emphasizing the importance of working closely with partner nations to achieve U.S. strategic objectives.

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Worldwide C-17 Availability to Support 82nd Airborne Operations from Fort Bragg/Pope Field

This report explores C-17 availability and determines how quickly these aircraft and their aircrews can reach and depart from Fort Bragg/Pope Field, where the 82nd Airborne Division operates, from the many locations they are deployed to worldwide.

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Enabling the Global Response Force: Access Strategies for the 82nd Airborne Division

The Global Response Force is built for rapid response to unforeseen operations. This study recommends specific GRF access strategies for each geographic combatant command given constraints in aircraft, intermediate staging bases, and other factors.

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Assessing Conventional Army Demands and Requirements for Ultra-Light Tactical Mobility

The Army often uses vehicles informally classified as ultra-light tactical mobility (UTM). This report assesses the demands, requirements, current ad hoc capabilities, and key considerations for developing and sustaining established Army UTM fleets.

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Readiness Reporting for an Adaptive Army

Examines the Army's readiness reporting system in light of changes experienced by Army units in the past decade, particularly the ability of units to adapt to emerging requirements by adding and training up new capabilities quickly.

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Lessons from the Army's Future Combat Systems Program

Documents the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems program's history, from inception to cancellation, and draws lessons from its experiences.

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Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Logistics Applications

Estimates the technical and operational feasibility and likely benefits of employing unmanned aircraft systems for various tasks in support of logistics operations.

Research Brief

Could a Rotational Equipping Strategy Save the Army Money?

Analyzes how the Army might use a rotational strategy to reduce equipment in early phases of the Army Force Generation cycle, how changes might be applied to units and equipment, and how changes might affect near- and far-term budgets.

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Where Might the U.S. Army Budget Go, and How Might It Get There?

Historic trends in the U.S. Army's largest budget accounts provide context for current decisions on future spending, especially in light of the Army's diminishing role in Iraq and Afghanistan over the coming decade.

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Efficiencies from Applying a Rotational Equipping Strategy

Analyzes how the Army might use a rotational strategy to reduce equipment in early phases of the Army Force Generation cycle, how changes might be applied to units and equipment, and how changes might affect near- and far-term budgets.

Research Brief

The War Within: Suicide Prevention in the U.S. Military

The increasing number of suicides is causing concern in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Suicide-prevention programs in DoD and across the services have some (but not all) of the characteristics of comprehensive programs.

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The War Within: Preventing Suicide in the U.S. Military

The increase in suicides among military personnel has raised concern. This book reviews suicide epidemiology in the military, catalogs military suicide-prevention activities, and recommends relevant best practices.

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Controlling the Cost of C4I Upgrades on Naval Ships

Looking across a set of completed C4I upgrades to U.S. Navy ships, the authors uncovered mixed evidence of cost improvement, a high level of variability in costs, and a trend toward overestimating the installation-labor costs of certain upgrades.

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Unfolding the Future of the Long War: Motivations, Prospects, and Implications for the U.S. Army

Explores the concept of the long war and identifies ways in which it might unfold as well as the implications for the Army and the U.S. military more generally.

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Allocation of Forces, Fires, and Effects Using Genetic Algorithms

Using information about friendly and enemy forces and the terrain, a RAND-developed model that incorporates a genetic algorithm (1) determines preferred Blue routes around Red forces and (2) allocates forces to these routes.

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The Knowledge Matrix Approach to Intelligence Fusion

As the U.S. military transforms to an information-based force, it will need to collect, combine, and utilize intelligence relying on the process known as ''fusion.'' This report describes one approach to capturing fusion in a constructive simulation.

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The Weapons Mix Problem: A Math Model to Quantify the Effects of Internetting of Fires to the Future Force

Offers some initial observations into the internetting of fires process and a foundation for understanding its relationship to combat outcome.

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Next Generation Environmental Technologies: Benefits and Barriers

Examines the potential of Next Generation Environmental Technologies, which reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous materials in manufacturing processes and products.

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Assessing Natural Gas and Oil Resources: An Example of a New Approach in the Greater Green River Basin

This report presents a new approach to assessing natural gas and oil resources that is intended to help guide strategic land use planning by expanding the scope of these assessments to include economic and environmental considerations.

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Assessing Gas and Oil Resources in the Intermountain West: Review of Methods and Framework For a New Approach

The authors examine four recent traditional assessments of the nation's potential supply of natural gas and oil resources.

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The Public Benefit of Energy Efficiency to the State of Washington

The authors estimated energy efficiency by means of energy intensity measures controlled for sectoral composition and energy prices, among other factors.

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The Public Benefit of Energy Efficiency to the State of Massachusetts

The authors show that savings from commercial and industrial energy-efficiency programs have provided a positive return on utility investment, and they demonstrate benefits of energy efficiency for Massachusetts households, particularly for low-income households.

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The Public Benefit of Energy Efficiency to the State of Minnesota

The authors show that savings from commercial and industrial energy-efficiency programs have provided a positive return on utility investment, and they demonstrate benefits of energy efficiency for Minnesota households, particularly for low-income households.

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Generating Electric Power in the Pacific Northwest: Implications of Alternative Technologies

This report examines the implications of using alternative power-generation technologies to meet future energy demands in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.

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Seeking Nontraditional Approaches to Collaborating and Partnering with Industry

Describes three nontraditional approaches to the Army's goal of collaborating and partnering with industry.

Research Brief

Getting Down to Business: How Innovative Partnerships with Industry Can Benefit the Army

This research brief describes work documented in Seeking Nontraditional Approaches to Collaborating and Partnering with Industry (MR-1401-A).

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A New Approach to Assessing Gas and Oil Resources in the Intermountain West

The authors propose that comprehensive resource assessment focus not on land access restrictions but on determining what resources are recoverable.

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Assessing the Value of Information Superiority for Ground Forces-Proof of Concept

Advanced communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems are intended to provide information superiority.