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Operational Readiness

Organizing, training, and equipping armed forces for combat is essential to ensure their success in the field. RAND research provides military decisionmakers with information and analyses to implement effective support, training, and acquisition policies that ensure the highest level of operational readiness, even in the face of increasingly fluid combat environments.

Periodical

RAND Review: September-October 2020

Feature stories explore how Pardee RAND is helping to shape the future of public policy through its Faculty Leaders Program; the safety and sustainability of the U.S. blood supply; and how telemedicine is changing the delivery of health care.

Sep 8, 2020
Report

Air Force Nonrated Technical Training: Improving Efficiency

What are some ways to improve the efficiency and responsiveness of the Air Force's technical training enterprise for both officers and enlisted personnel? There may be some lessons the Air Force can take from higher education institutions.

Jun 29, 2020
Report

A Changing Climate: Exploring the Implications of Climate Change for UK Defence and Security

This study explores the effects of climate change on UK defence and security and proposes a conceptual framework to support the UK Ministry of Defence in assessing and adapting climate change-related risks.

Jun 16, 2020
Report

Developing New Future Scenarios for the U.S. Coast Guard's Evergreen Strategic Foresight Program

The U.S. Coast Guard's Evergreen strategic foresight initiative works to identify emerging service challenges that require focus in the near term. This report describes an approach to developing future scenarios to aid in that process.

May 27, 2020
Report

Building Agile Combat Support Competencies to Enable Evolving Adaptive Basing Concepts

RAND researchers review the motivations for adaptive basing, describe a footprint model used for estimating its implications for Agile Combat Support (ACS), and discuss recommendations for the ACS community and the U.S. Air Force at large.

Apr 16, 2020
Report

Chasing Multinational Interoperability: Benefits, Objectives, and Strategies

National defense policies have focused on the importance of multinational interoperability to meeting U.S. defense goals. By recounting both their literature review and interviews, the authors describe potential benefits of interoperability.

Apr 8, 2020
Commentary

Pandemics and the U.S. Military: Lessons from 1918

Military leaders today face a more benign security environment than their predecessors did during the 1918 Spanish flu. The U.S. military is engaged in operations abroad, but it's not fighting a great-power war. The Pentagon has every reason to focus on stemming the COVID-19 pandemic even if it has to absorb some downgrade in readiness.

Apr 1, 2020
Report

Physical Task Simulations: Performance Measures for the Validation of Physical Tests and Standards for Battlefield Airmen

This report describes RAND's assistance to the Air Force in designing physical task simulations to evaluate the physical capabilities required to perform critical physical tasks in six battlefield airmen occupational specialties.

Feb 20, 2020
Report

How Capable Are Russia's Armed Forces?

Since 2008, the Russian military has become more capable, not only of defending its territory but also of launching invasions against its neighbors. Russia's defense spending is now in decline, but NATO policymakers and defense planners should continue to monitor its military improvements.

Oct 29, 2019
Report

Assessing Force Sufficiency and Risk Using RAND's Multi-Period Assessment of Force Flow (MPAFF) Tool

This report describes RAND's Multi-Purpose Assessment of Force Flow tool for conducting time-phased analysis of Army force sufficiency under a variety of assumptions on force generation policies, readiness policies, and force employment policies.

Oct 28, 2019
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

Improving DoD's Weapon System Support Program: A Critical Readiness Driver Approach

The readiness and sustainability of weapon systems is a key factor in defense. The Weapon System Support Program prioritizes system parts, but performance is lacking. RAND examines program effectiveness and gives recommendations for the future.

Aug 29, 2019
Report

Approaches to Strategic Sealift Readiness

The authors examine the readiness of the strategic sealift fleet and its management. They determine that many factors can be improved to increase readiness and make recommendations toward that end.

Aug 8, 2019
Report

Air Force Morale, Welfare, and Recreation Programs and Services: Contribution to Airman and Family Resilience and Readiness

Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) programs are key to resilient and ready Airmen and families. The authors developed a resilience and readiness model and compared it with target outcomes of MWR services. Next steps are also provided.

Jul 31, 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
Report

Valuing Air Force Electric Power Resilience

How well do current Air Force processes evaluate power resilience investments? A proposed framework identifies cost- and performance-related information in a clear manner that facilitates decisionmaking.

Jun 3, 2019
Report

Main Command Post-Operational Detachments (MCP-ODs) and Division Headquarters Readiness

Researchers identify the effects of Focus Area Review Group II headquarters design and its new unit type -- the Main Command Post--Operational Detachment -- on division headquarters readiness.

Jun 3, 2019
Commentary

Vietnam Is the Chinese Military's Preferred Warm-Up Fight

China's last major war experience gave it virtually zero lessons to apply to future armed conflict. At some point the People's Liberation Army (PLA) will need to test its new capabilities and the training it has honed over time. There are at least three reasons why Vietnam is likely in the PLA's crosshairs.

May 15, 2019
Report

A Stated Preference Analysis of the Determinants of Unit and Soldier Operational Effectiveness

The authors assess the relative importance of component status relative to a number of potential determinants of operational effectiveness, including but not limited to unit type, training level, experience in country, and associated costs and risk.

May 13, 2019
Report

OCEANS 17 Tabletop Exercise: Findings and Recommendations

In December 2017, the RAND Corporation conducted a tabletop exercise on air operations across the boundaries between geographic combatant commands. This report describes the exercise's design, key insights from our analysis, and recommendations.

May 9, 2019

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RAND Topic:
Operational Readiness

Topic Synonyms:
Combat Readiness

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