Roland J. Yardley

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 Department of Defense has suggested that "blending" active component and reserve component workforces in military units must be implemented more broadly for a more flexible, capable force. This report examines existing organizational designs that facilitate integration of the reserve and active workforces, to ascertain whether changed personnel management practices are needed to further implement these designs.

The authors review and assess the life-cycle management of equipment installed on U.S. Navy ships. This report demonstrates how inefficient organization results in seams between ships in new construction and those already in service and recommends management procedures for improving the readiness of this equipment, increasing its efficiency, and reducing sustainment costs.

One way for the Navy to operate its ships more cost-effectively might be for it to alter the deployment schedules of Navy surface vessels to get the greatest benefit in terms of operating efficiency and crew effectiveness. This report assesses the potential challenges and benefits associated with moving the deployment schedule of one class of ships the DDG-51 Arleigh Burke class of destroyers to a 72-month operational cycle."

The swift adoption of unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) and their increasing use in the field have exceeded the capacity of the training infrastructure to sustain training on these systems over the long term. This report develops a general concept for training military forces in employment of UASs and a framework for addressing the training requirements and discusses the limits of existing infrastructure in supporting UAS training.

The relationships among stakeholders involved in manpower, personnel, and training processes for managing the U.S. Navy information systems technician rating are discussed. The authors examine the effects of these different stakeholders on efficiency and effectiveness measures for the information technician community in general and the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services program specifically.

Much of the training for the engineering watchstanders of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that is currently done underway could be done in port. Training could also be done on simulators at considerable savings in time, money, fuel, and ship wear and tear. This monograph discusses how training simulator use could improve engineering watchstanders' proficiency before ships go to sea, reserving time at sea for fine-tuning the training.

Constrained budgets and increasing costs have forced the U.S. Navy to search for ways to reduce the annual operating costs of the fleet. One expensive driver of those costs is underway training of surface combatant ship crews. Focusing on the DDG-51 Arleigh Burkeclass of surface combatants, RAND examines whether and how increased use of simulators could be substituted for underway training without any decrease in readiness.The U.S. Navy is looking for ways to reduce the annual operating costs of the fleet. RAND examines whether and how an increased use of simulators could reduce costly underway training days for DDG-51class ships while sustaining readiness.

This title presents the results of a short-term review of 27 publicly available manpower studies to discover methods that other organizations could use to make fiscally informed manpower decisions. The studies exhibit varying methods for determining manpower requirements; however, the method used may not be as important as other attributes, such as the direct involvement of a senior decision maker.

The U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier fleet must meet the forward presence requirements of theater commanders. With a decreasing fleet size, planners must balance the timing of maintenance, training, and deployment with presence and surge demands. Evaluating multiple one- and two-deployment scenarios per cycle, RAND examines the feasibility of different cycle lengths, their effect on carrier forward presence, and their impact on shipyard workloads.

The Fleet Response Plan is a U.S. Navy program to enhance the operational availability of the aircraft carrier fleet. This report describes program modeling that varies the time between depot availabilities and the size of the depot work packages, to estimate its effect on the maintenance industrial base and the operational availability of the aircraft carrier fleet.

An analysis of whether the Department of Defense manpower, resources, and personnel systems are aligned to provide the personnel inventory necessary to meet changing military readiness and operational requirements effectively and efficiently.

Outlines a strategic approach to reserve joint officer management that addresses the requirements for, and the supply of, joint officers and also accounts for the unique constraints and challenges involved in joint officer management for reserve active status list officers. The authors estimate the supply of joint reserve officers and make several recommendations to help implement this strategic approach.

To achieve a more responsive and more readily deployable fleet of surface combatants, the Navy adopted the Fleet Response Plan (FRP) in 2003 to replace its traditional two-year ship maintenance cycle. The authors of this report look at the effects the FRP has had thus far and determine whether maintenance resources are meeting maintenance demands and whether related industry resources have been coordinated effectively.

Revisits joint officer management and frames a strategic approach to further officers' development in joint matters. The Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 dramatically changed the way in which the Department of Defense prepares for and executes its mission. The authors of this report revisit Goldwater-Nichols by examining the current state of joint officer management and framing a strategic approach to further officers' development in joint matters.

Focusing on its ability to meet current and future demands, the Navy recently examined its officer structure and asked RAND to analyze changes in authorizations and inventory, to compare authorizations and inventory and potential gaps in costs related to them, and to estimate personnel requirements for the years 2010 and 2017. Based on their research, the authors determine trends and cycles in officer requirements and inventory as well as the evolution of policy and the management of the officer corps. (PW)