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Military Transformation

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RAND research on military transformation—the adjustment of a nation's military to achieve a specified objective—analyzes four major issues: force structure, modernization, readiness, and sustainability. RAND provides decisionmakers with recommendations on all aspects of planning and strategy to maximize the effectiveness, continuity, and innovation of a nation's force as it adapts to technological, cultural, and other significant changes.

Report
Aligning Roles and Missions for Future Multidomain Warfare
The formal decisions, documents, and events that established the roles, missions, and functions (RMF) of the U.S. Department of Defense and the military services in the early postwar years are over 70 years old. Is the existing RMF framework fundamentally sound, requiring only modest adjustments?
Aug 19, 2021
Report
Measuring Strategic Readiness
The U.S. Department of Defense asked RAND to provide a method and specific metrics to enable the defense community to more fully answer questions about the nation's readiness to execute the National Defense Strategy. A new report examines the what metrics are needed to assess the nation's ability to respond to conflicts.
Jun 15, 2021

Explore Military Transformation

Report
Gaining the Edge: Identifying and Leveraging Frameworks for Enabling Army Contributions to Competition
This report supports the U.S. Army's effort to rethink its roles and responsibilities to meet the demands of competition with near peers below the threshold of armed conflict.
May 2, 2023
Report
The Resilience Assessment Framework: Assessing Commercial Contributions to U.S. Space Force Mission Resilience
This report describes the resilience assessment framework that RAND Project AIR FORCE developed to assess the potential impact of integrating select commercial space services on U.S. Space Force mission performance.
Apr 27, 2023
Commentary
Why Is China Strengthening Its Military? It's Not All About War
China's military modernization goals serve a variety of political and military purposes, none of which imply any intent to actually start a war. A grasp of the myriad drivers could help observers more accurately assess the danger posed by the PLA's modernization.
Mar 24, 2023
Report
Data-Enabled Approaches for Enhancing the Air Force Transformational Capability Pipeline
To aid the Air Force Transformational Capabilities Office, the authors of the report developed a data science tool to extract information from free-text descriptions. They demonstrate the tool and foresight methods in three case studies.
Mar 23, 2023
Report
Understanding, Managing, and Reporting U.S. Space Force Readiness
As a branch of the U.S. military, the U.S. Space Force (USSF) must understand, manage, and report its readiness. The authors of this report have created a readiness framework for the USSF and instructions on how to implement it.
Mar 7, 2023
Brochure
What Leaders Need to Know About Talent Management in the U.S. Air Force
RAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF) tackles difficult questions and generates actionable insights by combining the very best analytical tools and methods with a distinct interdisciplinary approach.
Sep 6, 2022
Report
Adaptive Engagement for Undergoverned Spaces: Concepts, Challenges, and Prospects for New Approaches
This report is a compendium of expert insights regarding opportunities for investing in science and technology to increase U.S. ability to engage in long-term competition in undergoverned spaces.
Jul 13, 2022
Report
French Army Approaches to Networked Warfare
The French concept of network-centric warfare argues that information-sharing enables forces to forgo armor and mass and underpins France's push for a middle-weight force -- one that can deploy to Africa but is robust enough for higher-end threats.
Jul 6, 2022
Journal Article
Developing a Concept of Operations for Joint All-Domain Command and Control with an Embedded Role for Artificial Intelligence Applications
Given the increased complexity of multi-domain operations planning, the reduced timescales, and the greater data requirements, military planners will require new tools, including those based on artificial intelligence/machine learning.
Mar 29, 2022
Report
Supporting Joint Warfighter Readiness: Opportunities and Incentives for Interservice and Intraservice Coordination with Training-Simulator Acquisition and Use
As conflicts increasingly involve joint operations, joint simulation-based training becomes more important. The authors examine gaps between joint training needs and current and future resources to improve coordination within and among the services.
Aug 4, 2021
Report
Could France Support a U.S.-Led War in Eastern Europe?
France has a greater range of capabilities than most other European militaries. It has remained strongly committed to NATO and bilateral defense cooperation with the United States. What capabilities might France bring to a hypothetical high-intensity conventional war against Russia?
Jun 16, 2021
Multimedia
The Future of the Special Operations Forces
An overview of testimony by Linda Robinson presented before the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations on March 26, 2021.
Apr 19, 2021
Testimony
Special Operations Forces Culture and Climate
What the nation asks of its special operations forces shapes who they are and what they do. Two decades of counterterrorism focus have led to an unbalanced and overused force. How can policymakers and military leaders rebalance the force to meet changing demands and address systemic issues such as its lack of diversity?
Mar 26, 2021
Multimedia
West Coast Aerospace Forum 2020: Aerospace Vision for the Future
The 6th annual West Coast Aerospace Forum in December 2020 featured discussions between some of the Department of the Air Force‘s most senior and experienced leaders and top civilian national security experts.
Feb 19, 2021
Journal Article
The Evolution of Special Operations as a Model for Information Forces
This article draws an analogy between special operations and information forces and suggests the history and evolution of SOF could serve as a model and provide lessons for the development of information forces.
Feb 19, 2021
Report
Proposed Analytical Products for the Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability: Developing and Presenting Options for Future Force Design and Capability Development
RAND Project Air Force assisted the Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability (AFWIC) in conceptualizing analytical and other products to support concept development, options for future force design, and capability development planning.
Dec 16, 2020
Brochure
RAND Arroyo Center Annual Report 2020
This Annual Report illustrates the depth, breadth, and responsiveness of the studies that RAND Arroyo Center conducted for the Army in fiscal year 2020.
Nov 10, 2020
Report
China's Evolving Military Strategy and Doctrine
The People's Liberation Army has made impressive modernization progress over the past three decades, but it is unclear how its efforts will translate to battlefield performance. Chinese military theory, strategy, and operational concepts are key to understanding how the PLA might fight when needed.
Sep 29, 2020

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RAND Topic:
Military Transformation

Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

James S. Chow

Vice President and Director, RAND Project AIR FORCE

James S. Chow is vice president and director of RAND Project AIR FORCE, and a senior engineer at the RAND Corporation. He has studied a variety of issues in the national defense and homeland security fields, from aircraft and weapons-related force planning issues to detailed modeling and…
Brian Dolan

Engineer

Brian Dolan (he/him) is an engineer with expertise in aerospace science and engineering, air and space warfare, science and technology policy, and modeling complex systems. His research at RAND spans many aspects of military operations and acquisitions for the air and space domains. Recent work…

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