Obaid Younossi

Reopening Old Wounds: Two Stories, One Lesson

The shocking events unfolding in Ukraine have reopened old wounds for two RAND researchers. Their personal stories stand as testaments that the traumas inflicted by Russia's war on Ukraine will echo for decades to come.

It's Time for the West to Engage with the Taliban

As a winter crisis looms, the Afghan people need support more than ever. Economic collapse and isolation risk provoking deeper instability, insecurity, and repression. The international community should now look seriously at making a deal with the Taliban to address these risks.

Inside the Fish Bowl: High Stakes Acquisition Protests

The Boeing-Lockheed Martin team filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office asserting that the U.S. Air Force's selection of Northrop Grumman to build the Long Range Strike-Bomber was fundamentally flawed. Work on the program, valued at approximately $80 billion, is now paused.

Lessons from the Past for the Future of the KC-46A

Analysis suggests that fixed-price contracts have not successfully reduced costs to the DoD associated with developing complex weapon systems. This has implications for the Air Force, given the importance of the ongoing KC-46A program.

Putting a Human Face on the Refugee Crisis

By welcoming and accepting refugees, the West can send their oppressors a message about what it means to be a free democratic society.

Afghan Progress Spotty but Hopeful

As NATO's role in Afghanistan was debated in Bucharest recently, the bad headlines continued rolling in. And yet, on the ground, there is equally compelling evidence that the efforts of the international community are making a difference and conditions are improving, write Obaid Younossi and Peter Dahl Thruelsen.

Afghanistan Needs Help

Published commentary by RAND staff: Afghanistan Needs Help, in United Press International.

A Brain Drain Threatens Afghanistan's Future

Published commentary by RAND staff: A Brain Drain Threatens Afghanistan's Future, in the International Herald Tribune.

Report

Improving Acquisition and Sustainment Outcomes for Military Commercial Derived Aircraft: The KC-46A Pegasus Experience

The authors of this report examine improvement in acquisition and sustainment of commercial derivative aircraft using a case study of the KC-46A Pegasus aerial refueling tanker.

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Life Cycle Management of Military Commercial Derivative Aircraft: Improving FAA Certification, Implementation of Digital Engineering and Sustainment Strategy

Drawing on interviews with U.S. Air Force, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and industry experts, the authors assess the benefits and challenges of (and propose best practices for) commercial derivative aircraft acquisition.

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Improving Defense Acquisition: Insights from Three Decades of RAND Research

In this report, RAND researchers describe overarching trends that affect the defense acquisition system, outline challenges in the defense acquisition process, and suggest improvements that might help address those challenges.

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Strategies for Acquisition Agility: Approaches for Speeding Delivery of Defense Capabilities

The authors analyze various approaches to speed acquisition of military capabilities and keep pace with evolving threats, assess these approaches' suitability for different conditions and acquisition types, and identify implementation issues.

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Developing a research impact performance management system for The Research Council, Oman: Final Report

This report sets out our approach and findings in developing a research impact performance management system for The Research Council (TRC), Oman.

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Australia's Naval Shipbuilding Enterprise: Preparing for the 21st Century

RAND researchers explore the feasibility of Australia sustaining a domestic naval shipbuilding industry compared with buying ships from foreign shipbuilders. The authors outline the complex consequences and trade-offs of both options.

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Qatar's School Transportation System: Supporting Safety, Efficiency, and Service Quality (Arabic-language version)

Assesses stakeholder perspectives on Qatar's school transportation system (STS), identifies a vision and goals for the STS, and discusses strategies to achieve the vision and better align Qatar's STS with international norms. This is the Arabic-language version.

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Qatar's School Transportation System: Supporting Safety, Efficiency, and Service Quality

Assesses stakeholder perspectives on Qatar's school transportation system (STS), identifies a vision and goals for the STS, and discusses strategies to achieve the vision and better align Qatar's STS with international norms.

Research Brief

Updating Qatar's School Transportation System

Describes a vision for updating Qatar's school transportation system and identifies strategies for achieving the proposed vision.

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Recommended Research Priorities for the Qatar Foundation's Environment and Energy Research Institute

The Qatar Foundation is establishing a national research institute to conduct energy, environment, and water research. This book recommends research priorities for the institute and reports on a survey of related research institutions in the region.

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Sustaining Key Skills in the UK Military Aircraft Industry

This monograph reports on RAND Europe's support to the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence's Fixed Wing Sector Strategy Board towards development of a strategy and sustainment plan for the military fixed wing sector.

Research Brief

Sustaining Key Skills in the United Kingdom's Military Aircraft Industry

The UK currently has the industrial skills needed to develop, produce and maintain its military aircraft, but predicted future demand for design engineering activity is insufficient to sustain a number of key skills beyond the 2010-2019 decade.

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Ending F-22A Production: Costs and Industrial Base Implications of Alternative Options

Evaluates the costs and industrial base implications of alternative shutdown options for the F-22A program after the last production aircraft is delivered.

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The Long March: Building an Afghan National Army

Assesses the progress of the Afghan National Army in the areas of recruitment, training, facilities, and operational capability and concludes that coalition forces will be needed to assist in the country for the foreseeable future.

Periodical

RAND Review: Vol. 33, No. 1, Spring 2009

Feature stories discuss government cost controls, health information technology, and negotiations with Iran; other stories discuss climate change, soft power, charter schools, meth use, Hispanic enlistments, Mumbai terrorism, and Jeremy Azrael.

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Titanium: Industrial Base, Price Trends, and Technology Initiatives

Analyzes the underlying factors that triggered the unprecedented surge in titanium price after 2003 and reviews future market prospects and emerging technologies to assess their implications for the production cost of future military airframes.

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Improving the Cost Estimation of Space Systems: Past Lessons and Future Recommendations

Analyzes the reason for the comparatively high growth in the cost of space systems by means of an in-depth study of two systems: SBIRS-High and GPS.

Research Brief

Flexibility and Sensitivity to Local Concerns Are Crucial to Long-Term U.S. Security Relationships with Iraq and Afghanistan

This research brief discusses long-term U.S. security relationships with Iraq, Afghanistan, and the surrounding regions.

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Why Has the Cost of Fixed-Wing Aircraft Risen? A Macroscopic Examination of the Trends in U.S. Military Aircraft Costs over the Past Several Decades

This report explores why, in recent decades, military fixed-wing aircraft costs have escalated faster than the rates of inflation, examining both economy-driven factors that the Services cannot control and customer-driven ones that they can.

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Future U.S. Security Relationships with Iraq and Afghanistan: U.S. Air Force Roles

Frames potential long-term U.S. security relationships with Iraq and Afghanistan in a regional context and posits roles of U.S. forces, especially the Air Force, in supporting these relationships under a variety of contingencies.

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Sources of Weapon System Cost Growth: Analysis of 35 Major Defense Acquisition Programs

Cost growth in major weapon-systems programs results from errors in estimation and scheduling, government decisions, financial matters, and miscellaneous sources, with decisions involving changes in requirements, quantities, and production schedules the dominant cause.

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Afghanistan: State and Society, Great Power Politics, and the Way Ahead: Findings from an International Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2007

Compiles papers presented at an international conference on the problems that Afghanistan faces in the wake of the U.S.-led attack on al Qaeda and the Taliban; the obstacles to nation-building in the country; and possible solutions to these issues.

Research Brief

Is Weapon System Cost Getting Better or Worse?

This research brief summarizes an analysis of cost-growth trends and their contributing factors in completed and ongoing U.S. Department of Defense weapon system programs, presenting recommendations to better manage and predict cost growth.

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Is Weapon System Cost Growth Increasing? A Quantitative Assessment of Completed and Ongoing Programs

This study examines cost growth in completed and ongoing U.S. Department of Defense weapon system programs over the past three decades and finds that development cost growth has remained high and without any significant improvement.

Research Brief

Does Buying the F-22A Under A Multiyear Contract Save Money?

This research brief examines the savings to be gained from a multiyear procurement of three lots of F-22A fighters.

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F-22A Multiyear Procurement Program: An Assessment of Cost Savings

Reviews the estimated savings to be gained from awarding multi-year contracts for 60 F-22A aircraft over three years.

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Evolutionary Acquisition: Implementation Challenges for Defense Space Programs

This monograph presents findings of a RAND Project AIR FORCE research project documenting lessons learned from the implementation of evolutionary acquisition (EA) strategies on major Defense Department military space programs.

Research Brief

"Evolutionary Acquisition" Is a Promising Strategy, But Has Been Difficult to Implement

This research brief summarizes lessons learned from the implementation of evolutionary acquisition strategies on U.S. Department of Defense space programs.

Research Brief

Why Have Navy Ship Costs Risen?

This research brief examines the rising costs of U.S. Navy ships over the past few decades and what the service can do now and in the future to reduce these costs.

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Historical Cost Growth of Completed Weapon System Programs

Our analysis shows that the Department of Defense (DoD) and the military departments have generally underestimated the cost of buying new weapon systems and that the growth is larger than previously thought.

Research Brief

New Techniques Help to Estimate Systems Engineering and Program Management Costs for Military Aircraft and Guided Weapons

This research brief summarizes trends in the cost of systems engineering and program management for military aircraft and guided weapon systems and factors driving those costs.

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Systems Engineering and Program Management: Trends and Costs for Aircraft and Guided Weapons Programs

Examines methods that cost analysts can use to estimate the systems engineering and program management cost element in the development and production of aircraft and weapons programs.

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Impossible Certainty: Cost Risk Analysis for Air Force Systems

Reviews ways of implementing cost uncertainty analysis to better understand the costs of future weapon systems.

Research Brief

Better Methods of Analyzing Cost Uncertainty Can Improve Acquisition Decisionmaking

This research brief looks at the Air Force's cost estimation process for weapon systems and reviews ways of implementing cost uncertainty analysis to better understand the costs of future weapon systems.

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Why Has The Cost of Navy Ships Risen? A Macroscopic Examination of the Trends in U.S. Naval Ship Costs Over the Past Several Decades

Examines why the increases in acquisition cost for U.S. naval ships have outpaced the rate of inflation over the past several decades.

Research Brief

The Challenges of Developing New Weapon Systems: Lessons Learned from the F/A-22 and F/A-18E/F

The Air Force asked RAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF) to investigate the reasons behind the differences between the F/A-22 and F/A-18E/F programs and to derive lessons for improving future acquisitions.

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Lessons Learned from the F/A-22 and F/A-18 E/F Development Programs

Examining these two programs illustrates the real difficulties and successes of the U.S. military aircraft acquisition process.

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Test and Evaluation Trends and Costs for Aircraft and Guided Weapons

The authors examine the effects on cost of various trends in test and evaluation for certain military systems.

Research Brief

Estimating the Costs of Future Weapon Systems: Focus on Testing and Evaluation

RAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF) studied T&E costs for recent Air Force and Navy fixed-wing aircraft, tactical missile, and guided munition systems to identify trends that might affect such costs in the future.

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Military Jet Engine Acquisition: Technology Basics and Cost-Estimating Methodology

Adds new observations to the cost-estimating database from earlier RAND studies and presents a method for forecasting the development cost, development time, and production cost of future military engine programs

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Assembling and Supporting the Joint Strike Fighter in the UK: Issues and Costs

Would it be worthwhile for the United Kingdom to undertake some of the assembly and repair work for its Joint Strike Fighter?

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Competition and Innovation in the U.S. Fixed-Wing Military Aircraft Industry

Responds to Senate's concerns that further consolidation in the military-aircraft industry, which has dropped from 11 prime contractors in 1960 to the current three, will pose risks to innovation and cost through limited or no competition.

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The Effects of Advanced Materials on Airframe Operating and Support Costs

Presenting a methodology for forecasting operating and support costs for airframe parts made from advanced materials versus parts made from aluminum.

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Final Assembly and Checkout Alternatives for the Joint Strike Fighter

Analyzes alternative strategies for final assembly and checkout of the Joint Strike Fighter.

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The Eyes of the Fleet: An Analysis of the E-2C Aircraft Acquisition Options

The Navy soon has to decide whether to buy new E-2C Hawkeye aircraft, retrofit old aircraft or refurbish them to extend their service lives, or adopt some combination of these options. This book analyzes the costs, benefits, and risks of those options.

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Assessing Competitive Strategies for the Joint Strike Fighter: Opportunities and Options

Defense policymakers in the United States expect that the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will play a critical role in U.S. and allied military forces through the first half of this century.

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Military Airframe Costs: The Effects of Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Processes

This report focuses specifically on the effects of material mix, manufacturing techniques, and geometric part complexity on the cost of military airframes.

Research Brief

New Processes for the Estimation of Military Airframe Costs

The generation of more timely cost-estimating models would thus appear to form the cornerstone of sound acquisition policy. Address this issue by updating existing cost-estimating methodologies in the critical area of military airframes.