Obstacles to the Termination of Air Force Activities

Paul T. Hill, Thomas K. Glennan, Jr., Susan J. Bodilly

ResearchPublished 1986

The requirements of the 1985 Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act or other budgetary constraints could lead the Air Force to consider terminating some procurement and research-and-development programs. This report analyzes the obstacles to the Air Force's use of termination as a management option and suggests how the Air Force might surmount these obstacles. The analysis is based on a review of (1) the literature on the barriers to termination that private-sector firms and government agencies face in trying to terminate major activities; (2) the Air Force's planning and resource-allocation process; and (3) the experience of large private firms that had terminated or divested major businesses. The report neither advocates termination for its own sake nor argues for its use in a particular case. The Air Force may conclude that initiating its own terminations may be the best way to keep control over basic decisions about its missions and character.

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Hill, Paul T., Thomas K. Glennan, Jr., and Susan J. Bodilly, Obstacles to the Termination of Air Force Activities. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1986. https://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R3303.html.
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