Air Force Contingency Contracting

Reachback and Other Opportunities for Improvement

John A. Ausink, Laura Werber, Mary E. Chenoweth

ResearchPublished Mar 31, 2011

Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom have placed great demands on the Air Force's highly skilled contracting workforce. This report examines "reachback" — the use of contracting capability outside the theater of operations to accomplish contracting tasks for customers in the theater — as a potential means for reducing the deployment burden on military personnel. The authors analyze after-action reports written by contingency contracting officers (CCOs) who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, the results of focus groups with CCOs, interviews with subject matter experts, and purchasing data, and conclude that reachback might improve performance in some areas because of greater personnel continuity, standardization of processes, and the ability to access personnel with higher-level skills. Although reachback has the potential to reduce deployments and increase the effectiveness of some contracting functions, there is also a need for policy and procedural changes to address other causes of stress on contracting officers, so that they can concentrate more fully on their primary duty of purchasing goods and services for the warfighter.

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  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Available
  • Year: 2011
  • Print Format: Paperback
  • Paperback Pages: 92
  • Paperback Price: $20.00
  • Paperback ISBN/EAN: 978-0-8330-5012-0
  • Document Number: TR-862-AF

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RAND Style Manual
Ausink, John A., Laura Werber, and Mary E. Chenoweth, Air Force Contingency Contracting: Reachback and Other Opportunities for Improvement, RAND Corporation, TR-862-AF, 2011. As of September 25, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR862.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Ausink, John A., Laura Werber, and Mary E. Chenoweth, Air Force Contingency Contracting: Reachback and Other Opportunities for Improvement. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2011. https://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR862.html. Also available in print form.
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The research in this report was prepared for the United States Air Force and conducted by RAND Project Air Force.

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