Military Force Deployment

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The successful deployment of a military force involves the movement of troops and materiel in response to a regional threat and the ability to sustain this force until the military objective is achieved. RAND has extensive experience evaluating and providing supportable recommendations to military decisionmakers to ensure rapid and sustainable deployments to counter regional threats.

  • Iraqi army force are seen in frontline to fight against Islamic State (IS) militants in Khrbadan village in the city of Qayyarah, 55 km south of Mosul, Iraq, on April 9, 2016, photo by Yaser Jawad/Xinhua/Alamy Live News

    Report

    Iraqi Army Will to Fight

    In summer 2014, the Iraqi Army imploded, breaking and scattering in the face of attacks from Islamic State fighters. How can U.S. advisors help strengthen Iraqi Army will to fight and overall combat effectiveness?

    Jan 11, 2022

  • At sea aboard USS Hue City, view of the guided missile cruiser USS Vicksburg and the guided missile destroyers USS Roosevelt, USS Carney, and USS The Sullivans during an exercise, December 2003, photo by U.S. Navy

    Report

    What Would a Strategy of Restraint Mean for U.S. Security Policy?

    If the United States adopted a grand strategy of restraint in the Asia-Pacific, how would its posture in the region change and how would it determine when to use force? What warfighting scenarios involving the defense of Japan could guide defense planning?

    Mar 31, 2022

Explore Military Force Deployment

  • Journal Article

    Journal Article

    Employment Gaps Between Military Spouses and Matched Civilians

    Drawing upon data from the Deployment Life Study, this article examines whether female military spouses (SPs) are disadvantaged relative to matched civilian peers in terms of hours worked and earnings, paying particular attention to gaps among the highest educated women.

    Jul 26, 2016

  • Journal Article

    Journal Article

    Preparing for Deployment: Examining Family and Individual-Level Factors

    Deployment can be a significant source of stress for military families. Understanding how families prepare in the face of such stress, and which families are less likely to prepare, is a priority of the Department of Defense.

    Jul 25, 2016

  • A spouse embraces her husband after he returned from a four-month deployment May 18, 2016, at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado

    Commentary

    'In the Deployment Life Study, I Saw My Own Family'

    RAND's Deployment Life Study was designed to examine how deployment affects the health and well-being of military families. M.M. Smith, an active-duty military spouse, offers her response to the study.

    Jul 18, 2016

  • Periodical

    Periodical

    RAND Review: July-August 2016

    This issue highlights the stress of military deployments and resilience of military families; RAND research on cybercrime, network defense, and data breaches; the 40th anniversary of RAND's landmark Health Insurance Experiment; and more.

    Jun 27, 2016

  • Debra Mendelsohn (left) poses with her husband, Bill (center), and their two children, Emelie and Doug, in November 2010

    Essay

    The Resilience of Military Families

    Deployment of a spouse and parent can shake a military family to its core. But according to RAND research, these families display remarkable resilience.

    Jun 16, 2016

  • A soldier deployed in Iraq video chats with his wife and children

    Commentary

    Study Finds Most Military Families Are Resilient in Face of Deployment

    Despite the fact that service members, spouses, and their children experience frequent deployments to combat zones throughout the world, a recent study of more than 2,700 military families found that they generally fare well and adapt effectively to the stresses of deployment.

    Apr 22, 2016

  • Seabees homecoming

    Research Brief

    How Military Families Respond Before, During and After Deployment

    What happens to military families over the course of a deployment cycle? And how do post-deployment outcomes differ between families who did and did not experience deployment?

    Apr 15, 2016

  • U.S. Army soldier holds his daughter after a deployment ceremony at the Alaska National Guard Armory

    Report

    Insights from the Deployment Life Study

    Experiences during a service member's deployment can have a profound impact on how families fare during the reintegration period. But for many experienced military families, functioning eventually returns to pre-deployment levels.

    Apr 7, 2016

  • A man stands on a buring military vehicle

    Report

    Operation IRAQI FREEDOM: Decisive War, Elusive Peace

    Summarizes a classified five-volume report on the planning and execution of operations in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM through June 2004. Recommends changes to Army plans, operational concepts, doctrine, and Title 10 functions.

    Jan 4, 2016

  • U.S. Army soldier conducts a call-for-fire during an artillery shoot south of Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, August 22, 2014

    Commentary

    Book Review: 'Women at War'

    Today, women represent approximately 15 percent of the U.S. military but research on their specific physical and psychological health issues has remained relatively sparse. A new book, Women at War, attempts to change that.

    Dec 21, 2015

  • Army National Guard Infantry Soldiers and Reserve Officer Corps Training cadets conduct an air assault mission using UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters and foot patrols at Camp Grayling, Michigan

    Commentary

    Understanding the Abrams Doctrine: Myth Versus Reality

    As the NCFA finishes up its work on the future of the Army it is worthwhile to note that the strategic context in which the Army operates and is organized has changed over time, resulting in different calculations of costs and risks.

    Dec 9, 2015

  • Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani and U.S. President Barack Obama after their joint news conference in Washington March 24, 2015

    Commentary

    Saving Afghanistan: More Than Just Troops

    President Obama's decision to preserve troop strength in Afghanistan is a major step in the right direction. But his commitment to continued support for President Ghani and the national unity government as they pursue critical reforms will determine whether the U.S. troop commitment has any value.

    Nov 5, 2015

  • Cameroonian soldiers in Mabass, northern Cameroon, where Boko Haram militants kidnapped 80 people on January 18, 2015

    Commentary

    A Good Move in Cameroon

    President Obama's decision to deploy 300 soldiers to Cameroon to help combat the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram is welcome news. The U.S. is stepping in at the right time, in the right way, by providing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance support that will greatly enhance Cameroon's and others' chances.

    Oct 18, 2015

  • Testimony

    Testimony

    Limiting Regret: Building the Army We Will Need: Addendum

    Testimony with annotated slides presented before the National Commission on the Future of the Army on August 18, 2015.

    Oct 6, 2015

  • U.S. Army General receives a mountaintop briefing from American and Afghan Special Forces on Camp Moorehead, Afghanistan

    Commentary

    The U.S. Military: Between a Rock and a Repulsive Place

    There is a reasonable argument that the best route to address pedophilia and other human rights violations by Afghan forces is to remain engaged, and to make U.S. support conditioned upon remediation and accountability, as the Leahy law requires.

    Sep 29, 2015

  • U.S. Army Rangers prepare for extraction during Task Force Training on Camp Roberts, California

    Commentary

    U.S. Needs Larger Army, Not a Smaller One

    To meet potential challenges in the Baltics and Korea while at the same time countering the existing terror threat posed by the Islamic State group and dealing with other problems that will doubtless emerge, the United States would need more troops, not less.

    Sep 9, 2015

  • Soldiers with 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, conducted a brigade-size air assault during Operation Dark Eagle, June 23, 2014

    Testimony

    Limiting Regret: Building the Army That the United States Will Need

    How big and how ready does the United States need the U.S. Army to be to meet its commitments? There is an imbalance between these commitments and America's current force planning. Correcting this would be challenging, but there are options that may help limit regret and strategic failures down the road.

    Aug 18, 2015

  • A Belgian Air Force F-16 over Ghardabiya Air Base, Libya, April 29, 2011

    Report

    Airpower in the Libyan Civil War

    In 2011, a coalition of nations waged a war against Muammar Qaddafi's regime that reversed the tide of Libya's civil war. The intervention's central element was a relatively small air campaign. What lessons did each nation glean from the experience?

    Jul 8, 2015

  • A U.S. Army crew chief scans his sector from a CH-47 Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan, May 8, 2015

    Commentary

    Understanding the U.S. Military's Morale Crisis

    The military's discontent may stem from dissonance between the commitment to, and pride in, the mission in Iraq and Afghanistan and the knowledge that these sacrifices have not yielded the desired results. Those wars arguably have prompted a crisis of confidence within the military itself.

    Jun 29, 2015

  • U.S. Army soldiers provide security while coalition soldiers examine the inside of an Afghan army ammunition bunker

    Report

    Army Global Basing Posture: An Analytic Framework for Maximizing Responsiveness and Effectiveness

    This report develops a methodology and a framework for global Army positioning and uses that framework to assess U.S. Army forward stationing from a perspective of maximum responsiveness and effectiveness and identifies potential improvements.

    Jun 1, 2015

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