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Military Logistics

Logistics—the transfer of personnel and materiel from one location to another, as well as the maintenance of that materiel—is essential for a military to be able to support an ongoing deployment or respond effectively to emergent threats. RAND has long provided guidance and effective solutions to military supply and logistics decisionmakers, resulting in significant savings, improved readiness and combat support, and unit flexibility.

Report

Report

Army Stock Positioning: How Can Distribution Performance Be Improved?

This report analyzes how the U.S. Army can improve its distribution of heavy secondary items that account for a small proportion of the overall number of items the Army must ship to users but comprise a large proportion of the weight it ships.

Aug 14, 2017
Report

Report

Program Characteristics That Contribute to Cost Growth: A Comparison of Air Force Major Defense Acquisition Programs

This report evaluates four recent Air Force Major Defense Acquisition Programs with low cost growth and compares and contrasts their key characteristics to the six programs evaluated with extreme cost growth from a companion RAND Corporation report.

Jun 30, 2017
Report

Report

Support to the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center: Enabling AFIMSC's Role in Agile Combat Support Planning, Execution, Monitoring, and Control

This report provides a strategic view of the analytical capabilities that are needed by the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center to allocate resources to and assess the performance of installation and mission support activities.

Jun 23, 2017
Commentary

Giving Japan a Military

After 70 years, Japan may finally be on the cusp of acquiring its own military. Legally, that is. Prime Minister Abe has proposed a change to Japan's constitution to give legal standing to the Self-Defense Forces, and it's long overdue.

Jun 20, 2017
Report

Report

A New Methodology for Conducting Product Support Business Case Analysis (BCA): With Illustrations from the F-22 Product Support BCA

This document explains how to apply guidance on project evaluation to product support business case analyses in a way that allows senior Department of Defense decisionmakers to use net present value to compare courses of action.

Jun 13, 2017
Commentary

Japan's Mistaken South Sudan Withdrawal

Being a proactive contributor to peace involves risk if a country is serious about gaining real-world experience. Pulling out of South Sudan deprives Japan's Self-Defense Force of crucial operational experience and sends a confusing message to the United States and the international community.

Jun 8, 2017
Report

Current and Future Challenges to Resourcing U.S. Navy Public Shipyards

To better understand recent trends at U.S. Navy public shipyards, RAND researchers explore how shipyard work is changing, whether more personnel are now required to perform it, and what risks shipyards may wish to address through additional hiring.

May 2, 2017
Report

Report

Articulating the Effects of Infrastructure Resourcing on Air Force Missions: Competing Approaches to Inform the Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution System

Describes and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of several analytic approaches for linking infrastructure resources to readiness and for articulating the effect of infrastructure underfunding in the Air Force Program Objective Memorandum process.

Apr 17, 2017
Report

Report

The Abilities of the British, French, and German Armies to Generate and Sustain Armored Brigades in the Baltics

This report assesses the current capacity of Britain, France, and Germany to generate armored units for a hypothetical deployment to the Baltics. Could they muster a full brigade each? How quickly could they do that, and for how long?

Apr 12, 2017
Report

Report

Developing a Capacity Assessment Framework for Marine Logistics Groups

This report provides a capacity assessment framework to assist each of the Marine Logistics Groups, or any size unit, in determining the ability of logistics units to meet current and projected tasks.

Feb 20, 2017
Report

Report

Continuity and Contingency in USAF Posture Planning

This study develops a framework for long-term U.S. Air Force (USAF) posture planning that accounts for drivers of USAF posture and identifies steps the USAF can take to increase posture robustness and agility over the 30-year planning period.

Nov 18, 2016
Report

Assessing the Training and Operational Proficiency of China's Aerospace Forces: Selections from the Inaugural Conference of the China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI)

This volume contains revised versions of three presentations on Chinese aerospace training and operational competence issues from a June 2015 China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI) conference.

Oct 20, 2016
Report

Report

Applying Best Practices to Military Commercial-Derivative Aircraft Engine Sustainment: Assessment of Using Parts Manufacturer Approval (PMA) Parts and Designated Engineering Representative (DER) Repairs

Explores the potential for cost savings in the Department of Defense through the greater use of use of Federal Aviation Administration-certified parts and repairs provided by companies other than the original equipment manufacturer.

Sep 19, 2016
Brochure

Brochure

Fostering Innovation in the Defense Department: Examples from RAND's Federally Funded Research and Development Centers

Describes examples of how the Department of Defense (DoD) has used RAND analysis across the spectrum of DoD activities to innovate and otherwise solve problems in meeting its mission objectives.

Jul 8, 2016
Report

Report

Managing U.S. Air Force Aircraft Operating and Support Costs: Insights from Recent RAND Analysis and Opportunities for the Future

To help the Air Force manage rising operating and support (O&S) costs for aircraft, this report describes key findings from previous RAND analyses, discusses current Air Force efforts to address O&S costs, and recommends additional actions.

May 6, 2016
Report

Can the Air Force and Airlines Collaborate for Mutual Benefit? An Exploration of Pilot and Maintenance Workforce Options

This report explores ways the Air Force and commercial airlines could collaborate on issues related to their pilot and maintenance workforces by evaluating benefits, costs, and feasibility from the perspectives of both sides.

Apr 21, 2016
Report

Weighing the Benefits of Longer Operational Cycles for Certain Ships

The Navy is transitioning from a 32-month to a 36-month cycle, but adopting a 72-month cycle could increase the time surface vessels are deployed, allow for multiple deployments between depot availabilities, reduce the number of basic training periods, and achieve some cost savings by removing the crews during the depot maintenance period.

Apr 18, 2016
Brochure

RAND Arroyo Center Annual Report 2015

This annual report describes RAND Arroyo Center's research activities in FY 2015, highlights areas of research focus, and summarizes recent publications.

Mar 30, 2016
Report

Metrics to Compare Aircraft Operating and Support Costs in the Department of Defense

This report examines several issues associated with the cost-per-flying-hour (CPFH) metric used in the Department of Defense (DoD), including its use to compare operating and support costs of different aircraft.

Dec 22, 2015
Report

Assessment of Surface Ship Maintenance Requirements

This report by the National Defense Research Institute (NDRI) examines the impact of the U.S. government's fiscal challenges on the U.S. Navy's surface ship maintenance and operations requirements.

Dec 21, 2015

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RAND Topic:
Military Logistics

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