Bonnie L Triezenberg

As a branch of the U.S. military, the U.S. Space Force (USSF) must understand, manage, and report its readiness. The readiness systems of the U.S. Department of Defense were not designed to meet the unique demands of the military space community. The USSF has an opportunity to create systems that work better given the characteristics of operations in outer space. The authors of this report have created a readiness framework for the USSF.

The U.S. Space Force (USSF) is tasked by Congress to support the U.S. space launch industrial base and sustain robust launch capability. In 2019, a RAND team assessed the global heavy lift launch market to understand the impact of national security launch acquisition decisions on that mandate. In this update to that assessment, the team explores how recent market dynamics might affect the USSF's ability to meet national security space demand.

This report documents the authors' development of a methodology to define, assess, and evaluate resilience criteria over time, with a focus on the qualitative assessments of subject matter experts. The methodology is applied to a specific approach to building resilience: integrating coalition and commercial partners into the U.S. military satellite communications mission.

A priority of the United States Space Force (USSF) is to improve vertical and horizontal integration and synchronization of space capabilities. To assist with this priority, the authors of this research defined existing challenges and recommended ways that USSF can facilitate the integration and synchronization of space acquisition and fielding to support the timely delivery of end-to-end space capabilities to the joint force.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) requires more efficient and timely methods to acquire, integrate, and interoperate systems and systems-of-systems (SoSs) to deter near-peer adversaries and prevail in combat. RAND researchers were asked to participate in a multiyear effort to help DoD understand the challenges of creating a universal command and control language to facilitate the evolution of systems and interoperability of SoSs.

The authors summarize research to date about using a game-theoretic model of competition and cooperation in outer space to examine the dynamics of conflict there, short of wars of total destruction. They focus specifically on the dynamics of space competition in the context of limited space war. They provide a summary of the aspects of the research that would be of interest to a general audience of space policymakers and potential warfighters.

Attempts by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to address persistent challenges with software development have been hampered by an inability to identify the many software professionals working within DoD's programs. In this report, the authors identify and characterize a subset of DoD's software workforce, the types of software developed within DoD, and the variety of methods DoD programs use when employing that workforce to develop software.

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) today stands at a crossroads over its launch acquisition strategy. In this report, authors analyze the heavy lift launch market to help the USAF gain clearer insight into the number of U.S. launch service providers that the global heavy lift launch market can support and the impact of near-term decisions on the USAF's ability to (1) meet NSS launch demand using U.S. providers and (2) sustain two or more U.S. providers.

It is difficult to achieve command and control and situational awareness of the information environment (IE) because it is not a physical place. Although every military activity has informational aspects, the IE is often not effectively integrated into operational planning, doctrine, or processes. Addressing gaps and shortfalls will require a stronger understanding of the IE, associated concepts and capabilities, and roles and responsibilities.

This report provides an overview of the literature on telework, examines telework practices from across seven government agencies, and explains how government agencies benefit when employees engage in telework. There are similarities across successful agency telework programs regarding compliance with federal and organizational policies, technological accommodations, return on investment, performance management tools, and training.