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Military Career Field Management

Effective military leaders help nations meet their strategic goals, and the retention of these leaders is essential to preserving morale and unit readiness. RAND has conducted extensive research on training and career development programs that are designed to attract and retain personnel with the most promising mix of knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience.

Report

Department of the Air Force Officer Talent Management Reforms: Implications for Career Field Health and Demographic Diversity

The Department of the Air Force is revamping the way it manages officer development and promotion. The Air Force Personnel Policy Simulation Tool models the effects of personnel policy changes to identify potentially adverse consequences.

Jul 27, 2021
Report

Making the Grade: Integration of Joint Professional Military Education and Talent Management in Developing Joint Officers

The authors examine how joint educational institutions and stakeholders and the military services can support a transition to joint professional military education using the outcomes expected of graduates rather than traditional learning processes.

May 26, 2021
Research Brief

Modernizing Officer Career Management: Analyzing Eleven Issues

The authors examine 11 issues related to modernizing officer career management; these involve statutory, policy, cultural, and fiscal constraints. They offer service perspectives on these constraints and present mitigation strategies.

Jan 19, 2021
Research Brief

"Muddling Through": The Revolutionary Potential of Evolutionary Officer Management Reform

The authors examine why the services embraced the fiscal year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act reforms after rejecting the Force of the Future reforms.

Jan 19, 2021
Report

Officer Career Management: Additional Steps Toward Modernization

The authors identify useful steps toward modernization of officer career management in the military, examine constraints on reforms, and propose mitigating strategies and ways forward.

Jan 19, 2021
Report

Cost-Benefit Analysis of Special and Incentive Pays for Career Enlisted Aviators

The authors develop a capability to calculate the efficient amount of special and incentive pays for Air Force career enlisted aviators (CEAs). They also estimate the trade-offs between retaining CEAs and increasing accessions for a given force size.

Jan 7, 2021
Dissertation

Attracting the Right Volunteers: U.S. Army Functional Areas and the Voluntary Transfer Incentive Program

Explores how the United States Army has adapted to the Voluntary Transfer Incentive Program, which allows mid-career Army officers to volunteer to switch specialties to a functional area.

Sep 23, 2020
Report

U.S. Military Approaches to Leadership Vary Among Services

Emerging global security challenges might require different military leadership approaches and perspectives. How do the services currently develop leaders? And how do each service's personnel practices and culture influence how general and flag officers lead, manage, and advise?

Aug 10, 2020
Report

Modeling Career Enlisted Aviator Retention in the U.S. Air Force

The authors developed a U.S. Air Force career enlisted aviator (CEA)-specific model that can serve as the foundation for developing the analytic capability required to determine the efficient amount of special and incentive pay for CEAs.

Aug 5, 2020
Report

Strengthening Total Force Culture and Facilitating Cross-Component Integration in the U.S. Military

While all U.S. military services have strived to achieve greater total force integration and a stronger total force culture across their active and reserve components, significant impediments limit the achievement of these objectives. What policies can foster cross-component integration?

May 28, 2020
News Release

New Space Force Will Need Resources, Clear Definition of Warfighting Mission

To meet the goals of the U.S. Space Force most space activities in the Department of Defense should be moved into the new service. Moreover, it will be critical that the Space Force clearly define and clarify its space warfighting mission.

Mar 13, 2020
Research Brief

How to Build an Effective, Efficient, and Independent Space Force

To increase its likelihood of developing into a successful organization, the new U.S. Space Force should define and clarify its space warfighting missions. And most space activities in the Department of Defense should be moved into the new service.

Mar 13, 2020
Report

A Separate Space: Creating a Military Service for Space

As the United States creates the Space Force as a service within the Department of the Air Force, RAND assessed which units to bring into the Space Force, analyzed career field sustainability and drew lessons from other defense organizations.

Mar 13, 2020
Report

Army Expeditionary Civilian Demand: Forecasting Future Requirements for Civilian Deployments

As the largest provider of government civilians to support U.S. military operations, the Army stands to benefit to a great extent from a more robust process for forecasting future demand for its civilian workforce.

Oct 24, 2019
Report

Projecting Air Force Rated Officer Inventory Across the Total Force: Total Force Blue Line Model for Rated Officer Management

Managing the flow of Air Force rated officers has become more challenging. In this report, the authors document their efforts to develop a long-term career field planning model for all rated officers across the Total Force.

Sep 4, 2019
Report

Balancing Quality of Life with Mission Requirements: An Analysis of Personnel Tempo on U.S. Coast Guard Major Cutters

The authors analyze how U.S. Coast Guard servicemembers serving on major cutters respond to various levels of personnel tempo, as well as the effects of working conditions on these responses.

Jul 29, 2019
Report

Attracting, Recruiting, and Retaining Successful Cyberspace Operations Officers: Cyber Workforce Interview Findings

Recruiting and retaining military cyberspace officers is critical to national security. Through interviews, the authors examine potential drivers of retention and recruiting among cyberspace operations officers, making recommendations for the future.

Jul 26, 2019
Report

Independent Review and Assessment of the Air Force Ready Aircrew Program: A Description of the Model Used for Sensitivity Analysis

This report outlines a computational model to measure whether flying units can feasibly meet U.S. Air Force continuation training requirements, presents the model's specifications, and describes how it was used to assess the Ready Aircrew Program.

Jul 15, 2019
Testimony

Fostering Skills and Creating New Pipelines for Military Service

The latest National Defense Authorization Act provides seven new authorities enabling the services to access, retain, and promote competitive officers. What are some considerations for using them to address compensation, performance data collection, and the civil-military divide?

May 16, 2019
Report

Officer Career Management: Steps Toward Modernization in the 2018 and 2019 National Defense Authorization Acts

In this report, the authors summarize departmental views on the military officer career management policies examined in the two reports required by the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act and provide data to inform potential policy changes.

Mar 25, 2019

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Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

John D. Winkler

Director, Forces and Resources Policy Center

John D. Winkler is a senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation and director of the Forces and Resources Policy Center of the RAND National Security Research Division. The Center's mission is to improve policy and decisionmaking governing personnel management and use of defense…
Maria C. Lytell

Associate Director, Personnel, Training, and Health Program, RAND Arroyo Center

Maria Lytell is a senior behavioral scientist and associate director of the RAND Arroyo Center Personnel, Training, and Health Program. Her work focuses on military personnel topics with recent examples including diversity, equity, and inclusion in the military, digital talent needs for the…

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