Paul W Mayberry

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.

The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act required a federally funded research and development center to evaluate the Corporation for the Promotion of Rifle Practice and Firearms Safety, which administers the Civilian Marksmanship Program, in order to assess potential future transfers of excess firearms to the Corporation. This report summarizes the RAND Arroyo Center evaluation, with analyses of the discrete tasks in the legislative language.

The federal government is working to enable simple and strategic hiring practices. Toward this end, the authors identified best practices for recruiting, hiring, and compensation in 41 federal demonstration projects and alternative personnel systems that began between January 2008 and May 2019. These best practices offer solutions for agencies seeking to modernize and refine current personnel programs.

In this report, the authors describe the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) officer professional military education system, review how it operates, compare it with civilian educational institutions, analyze effects of possible changes, and identify opportunities to further align the system to DoD's needs. The report contains detailed descriptive information about each educational institution in the system.

Climate hazards adversely affect the physical environment in which the U.S. Department of Defense must operate, thereby adversely affecting the performance of the joint force. Acknowledging that climate effects will likely become more severe as global temperatures rise, the authors of this report discuss findings from a study they conducted to develop links between climate and force readiness.

The authors examine how joint educational institutions and stakeholders and the military services can support a transition to joint professional military education using the outcomes expected of graduates rather than traditional learning processes.