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Long-Range Development Planning in the Air Force

by William Simons, Giles K. Smith, E. S. Ojdana, Richard Y. Pei, Susanna W. Purnell, Eleanor Sullivan Wainstein

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Analyzes current planning procedures in both the Air Staff and Air Force Systems Command and suggests ways of applying these procedures more effectively to technology development so as to enable the Air Force to develop the capabilities that it will need. Based on data from (1) the literature on management theory, industrial planning, and modeling techniques, and (2) interviews with government and corporate executives and planning staffs, current Air Force planning practices are examined critically in relation to an analogue developed from our theoretical study and supplemented by observations of industrial practice. Recommended improvements include establishing a systematic strategic planning effort by creating a small corporate planning staff within the Chief of Staff's personal staff, to be charged with exploring goals and alternatives suitable for the uncertainties of the future, with particular concern for resource constraints. Also, long-range corporate preferences with respect to resource allocation should be integrated routinely into RDT&E program planning at all levels. (See also R-1847.)

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