Albert A Robbert

During his second tenure as Secretary of Defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld considerably revised the process for selecting senior U.S. military officers for top-ranking positions. The authors examine these changes and how the process evolved after Rumsfeld left office in 2006. They also identify key system attributes that defense officials should consider as they contemplate how senior officer selection and assignments will be managed.

Focusing primarily on the officer structure, this technical report provides a brief primer on the specialty-classification system, summarizes major changes in progress or planned, and suggests additional changes based on interviews and comparative analyses, to determine whether the existing specialty codes still provide the appropriate clustering of specialties.

Because test scores that are part of its enlisted promotion system are not standardized, the U.S. Air Force emphasizes longevity and test-taking ability differently and randomly across and within specialties. Random emphasis implies that the Air Force cannot be sure it promotes individuals with the highest potential. The authors discuss a range of predictable outcomes the Air Force could achieve by adopting various standardization strategies.This book examines the practice of not standardizing the test scores that are part of the U.S. Air Force enlisted promotion system and discusses possible standardization strategies.

This book summarizes defense acquisition workforce analysis that RAND has undertaken in support of human capital strategic planning. The report covers the civilian acquisition workforce, the careers of acquisition workforce senior executive service members, and the military acquisition workforce and its implications for the larger workforce. It also provides projection model that uses data on the civilian acquisition workforce as a key input.

The Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) develops, acquires, and maintains most Air Force systems and is tailoring its workforce to adapt to changes in technology, weapons, and battlefield requirements. This volume is a practical guide to the main steps in analytical workforce planning and development: determining workforce demand, describing workforce supply, comparing the demand with the supply, and implementing solutions.

Air Force units have found differences between authorized and actual numbers of personnel, partly because of deployments. Using historical and other data and interviews, the authors assessed the wing-level effects of these disparities including skill levels and personnel tempo. The recommendations include improvements in manpower bookkeeping and requirement determination, use of dynamic simulation models, and implementation of suitable metrics.

The Compensations, Accessions and Personnel Management (CAPM) system, designed to merge data and tools for analysis and to assist co-ordination of policy efforts, is demonstrated in tutorial format, showing how CAPM can be used to model some prototypical policy issues.

One-liner: Describes the background for and methods used in a study carried out to better understand how to develop leaders who possess the operational knowledge and technical skills needed to perform effectively in senior Air Force positions. 450-character abstract: Rand Project Air Force and the Air Force Senior Leader Management Office undertook a study to help improve the development of Air Force senior leaders. This report provides background information to put the methods developed in the study into context and describes how those methods were developed and used to address the need for an improved leadership development program.