James H. Bigelow

The composition of Air Force active and reserve forces is often contentious, especially during a force drawdown. This document seeks to inform force composition decisions by clarifying issues that affect the suitability of missions for assignment to the reserve components.

The number of fighter aircraft in the Air Force inventory is decreasing, but the demand for experienced fighter pilots is increasing. The authors use a dynamic mathematical model to show that, to keep from damaging fighter unit readiness, fighter pilot production in the active Air Force must be reduced and new approaches to developing and managing personnel with fighter pilot-like skills must be adopted.

A thorough analysis of the Air Force's ability to adequately train and absorb new fighter pilots into its operational units. The U.S. Air Force currently faces unprecedented problems in its efforts to provide adequate training for new and inexperienced pilots in its operational fighter units. On the one hand, there are too few fighter pilots in the active component to meet current and anticipated demands. On the other hand, the number of new fighter pilots entering operational units currently exceeds these units' absorption capacity, yielding a degraded training environment that ultimately threatens to compromise military readiness. This report assesses the Air Force's training dilemma with a view toward finding ways to remedy it in both the short and long term. Toward this goal, it defines the key parameters that influence a unit's absorption capacity, presents a best-case scenario on which to base numerical analyses, and offers several options decisionmakers can exercise.Although there is no simple resolution to the Air Force's training problem, a thorough understanding of the dynamic processes involved in aircrew management, together with a comprehensive analytic framework, promises to greatly aid decisionmakers in their efforts to address this issue. [AF] The U.S. Air Force is currently facing a critical dilemma in its efforts to train new and inexperienced fighter pilots. Although the number of fighter pilots in the active component currently falls short of meeting the Air Force's needs, operational units are unable to absorb the inflow of newly assigned pilots to a sufficient extent to address those needs. This report evaluates key factors that affect the Air Force's absorption problems and offers several options decisionmakers can exercise to remedy them. [AF]

Given the need for more integrated human capital management, the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs asked RAND PAF to help improve Air Force capability to analyze and capitalize on military personnel flows across the total force. In response, RAND built the Total Force Flow Model. Its description and capabilities will interest manpower and personnel managers and analysts both in and outside the Air Force.

This report describes a process for achieving and maintaining the balance between requirements for rated personnel and inventory. The process includes (1) recategorizing positions; (2) streamlining conversion of recategorized positions; (3) planning for effects of major actions on rated requirements; (4) redesigning positions to concentrate tasks requiring rated expertise in fewer rated positions; (5) making aircrew management more responsive.

In January 2004, the Military Health System (MHS) began implementation of the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA), DoD's global electronic health record. AHLTA will ultimately be used by all providers in the military's direct care system at the point of care. The authors describe a four-part framework they recommend that DoD adopt in measuring AHLTA's contribution to MHS performance.

Describes a method for designing a sample of Air Force personnel to participate in an online survey of cultural attitudes. The design needed to minimize the number of people asked to participate but had to be representative of a number of minorities and to sample enough people to allow for statistically meaningful comparisons. Joint samples were designed for both this survey and a health survey administered during the same time.

Examines interventions in the healthcare system that use Electronic Medical Record Systems (EMR-S) to affect patient trajectories - i.e., the sequence of encounters a patient has with the healthcare system - by improving health and thereby reducing healthcare utilization, or by reducing a costly form of utilization (e.g., inpatient stays) and increasing a more economical form (e.g., office visits to physicians, or prescription medications).

One-liner: Increased interest in California and other states in providing universal access to publicly funded preschool education is behind this study's aims to analyze the economic returns from investing in high-quality preschool education in California. 450-character abstract: There is increased interest in California and other states in providing universal access to publicly funded preschool education. In considering such a program, policymakers and the public focus on the potential benefits and costs of such a program. This study aims to inform such deliberations by conducting an analysis of the economic returns from investing in high-quality preschool education in the state of California.

Increased interest in California and other states in providing universal access to publicly funded preschool education is behind this study's aims to analyze the economic returns from investing in high-quality preschool education in California.. There is increased interest in California and other states in providing universal access to publicly funded preschool education. In considering such a program, policymakers and the public focus on the potential benefits and costs of such a program. This study aims to inform such deliberations by conducting an analysis of the economic returns from investing in high-quality preschool education in the state of California.

This text contains examples of the use of multi-resolution, multi-perspective modelling (MRMPM) and exploratory analysis to validate models not based in settled theory or specific empirical testing. A model and its data may not be fully valid but may be useful and good in more-limited ways.

A metamodel approximates the behavior of a more complex model. A common and superficially attractive way to develop a metamodel is to generate large-model data and use off-the-shelf statistical methods without attempting to understand the model's internal workings. This report describes research illuminating why it can be important to improve the quality of metamodels by using even modest phenomenological knowledge to help structure them. The work helps to understand multiresolution, multiperspective modeling.