Jan Osburg

This report describes how to best measure and assess the progress and outcomes of locally focused stability operations (LFSO) the missions, tasks, and activities that create stability by building security, governance, and development. It identifies assessment and foundational challenges and outlines solutions, along with recommendations and implementation guidance. The report concludes with an assessment plan for a notional LFSO scenario."

This report assesses in what ways and to what degree unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) are suitable for supporting U.S. Navy missions and functions. It briefly characterizes the current and emerging USV marketplaces to provide a baseline for near-term capabilities, describes USV concepts of employment to support diverse U.S. Navy missions and functions, and evaluates these concepts of employment to identify specific missions and functions for which they are highly suitable.

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.

To support U.S. Department of Homeland Security efforts to prioritize capability investments, this report examines trends in small unmanned aerial system development, the features that are likely to aid nefarious users, and how such actors could use an sUAS (or multiple systems) to conduct various types of operations-from surveilling U.S. government facilities to dispersing a chemical agent at a large public event.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confronts a variety of organizational-level risks within its programs that could influence the success of its missions or programs. This report provides NASA s Office of Strategy and Plans with a risk assessment methodology that integrates risk factors tailored to NASA s management, operations, and acquisition structures, allowing decisionmakers to compare risks within a common framework."

NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate is working to expand flight research in order to advance the maturation and demonstrate the application of new aeronautics concepts and technologies over the next ten years. It therefore asked RAND to assess flight research capabilities and needs, identify any gaps, and develop management options that would facilitate increased and improved flight research.

The report presents the results of two studies: The first compares the capabilities and development approaches used in the Joint Tactical Radio System wideband networking waveform and the commercial long-term evolution waveform, and the second analyzes military acquisition programs that have exceeded certain cost thresholds more than once.

Interviews with Security Force Assistance (SFA) practitioners in Afghanistan reveal insights that can be applied to future global operations. The enduring nature of most challenges that these practitioners face suggests that solutions still remain uncertain. Future SFA missions, such as those envisioned for the U.S. Army s Regionally Aligned Forces, can benefit from the experience gained from SFA in Afghanistan as captured in this report.