Joslyn Fleming

The authors explore the concept of strategic readiness, outline a framework for how the U.S. Department of Defense might conduct a strategic readiness assessment (SRA), highlight several analytic tools that could be used within this framework, and apply them to two defense policy issues: munitions procurement and planning modernization schedules across services. The report concludes with recommendations for how an SRA might be implemented.

This report seeks to address how the U.S. Army can most effectively project and employ land power in the Indo-Pacific, during competition and conflict, with a focus on scenarios involving China. The authors developed three concepts to guide the Army's ground force role in the theater, offering the essential architecture of basing, information, relationships, and flexible combat power needed to make the joint force effective.

The authors apply the Women, Peace, and Security framework to a fictional scenario of a Category 5 hurricane disaster response along the U.S.-Mexico border to demonstrate how disasters are experienced inequitably by different demographic groups. Through this case study, the authors reveal the existing knowledge base, associated data gaps, and process gaps and structural assumptions that limit effective disaster response.

The U.S. Navy is evolving to distributed maritime operations (DMO) in response to increased capabilities of near-peer adversaries, in the Western Pacific. To support DMO, the Navy needs new approaches to logistics and the resupply and sustainment of distributed units. The authors identify supply chain challenges for munitions and spare parts and recommend strategies to address demand forecasting, budgetary concerns, and industrial base capacity.

Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) is a research agenda that recognizes the impact that women have on peace and security and also the impact that conflict has on women. This report presents vignettes to help U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) stakeholders understand WPS relevance to national security and how WPS principles and gender perspectives have been applied in DoD mission areas.

The People's Liberation Army's (PLA's) growing ability to project and sustain power will rely on its logistics capabilities, systems, and processes. Understanding the PLA's approach to maintenance management is essential for assessing the PLA's ability to sustain a modernized force. The authors provide an overview of the PLA's approach to maintenance to inform a broader understanding about how the PLA plans to operate and sustain its forces.

Provisional unit equipping differs from the traditional way the Marine Corps equips forces, which places a burden on the logistics enterprise. The totality of the problem demands a multipronged approach as the best course of action.

Ballistic glass delamination creates spots, bubbles, and discoloration on the windshields of U.S. Marine Corps tactical vehicles, impairing driver visibility. To address this issue, RAND researchers use a simulation model to estimate the effects of delamination on future sustainment costs and vehicle availability under various repair and replacement scenarios and identify steps that the Marine Corps could take to mitigate the associated risks.