Tara L Terry

This report documents analyses of either a warrant officer component or an aviation technical track for commissioned officers to supplement the traditional Air Force pilot career path. The analysis sought to determine whether either alternative would enhance force sustainment, thus helping to reduce pilot shortages.

Processes for determining U.S. Air Force manpower requirements vary across and within the workforces. The primary focus of this report is on quantitative manpower requirements processes and the extent to which they are validated, coordinated, and consistent. For wartime or deployment needs, this report seeks to determine if a common-sight picture of demands is available, particularly for non-operational, non-maintenance activities referred to as agile combat support. It also explores the qualitative side of personnel requirements.

Aircrew flight equipment (AFE) personnel inspect, repair, maintain, pack, and adjust aircrew flight equipment, which is vital to the safety of the aircrews. In response to U.S. Air Force concerns about proficiency in the career field, the authors conducted a survey of more than 1,000 AFE enlisted personnel to help the career field better justify specific changes to training and personnel management policies.

The U.S. Army is looking to modernize its special and incentive (S&I) pays to increase their efficiency in improving retention and incentivizing greater performance. Specifically for aviator S&I pays, the Army is considering proposals that would make S&I pays contingent on achieving specific career milestones. Such a policy would aim to not only sustain retention but also target compensation to individual qualifications and talent.

The personnel who operate remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) are crucial in the Air Force, but many in the RPA career field are dissatisfied, and it is difficult to train and retain enough pilots to meet the demand. To assist in building a healthy, sustainable RPA career field, RAND has developed a long-term RPA career field planning model. This report explains the model's main features, content, and data inputs and describes key technical aspects.

This report assesses the effect that proposed military human resource management flexibilities could have on Air Force officer accessions, promotions, separations, and other force management outcomes. The assessments identified flexibilities that would benefit the Air Force and characterized subsets of the military workforce to which they could be advantageously applied.

Institutional requirements are funded manpower positions that can be difficult to fill because they do not align with traditional career fields, and they compete for the same personnel as operational and staff requirements. This report documents how the Air Force could reduce the impact of these requirements on career fields while ensuring that the organizations that depend on institutional requirements are staffed with qualified personnel.

This report models the effect of filling institutional requirement (IR) positions on a career field's health. The report also examines how changing the number of IRs affects the operational development, career experience diversity, and career paths of space officers. The fill rates of most space jobs would not be affected by reductions in the total number of IRs allocated to the space career field. IR effects on space officers' careers could be lessened by careful job selection and position prioritization.

This report examines alternative policies and practices to better align post-promotion board reporting with the objectives of promoting officers who have served on the Joint Staff and OSD staff at at least the same rate as those with service headquarters staff experience and of promoting joint-qualified officers and Acquisition Corps members at at least the same rate as line or equivalent officers in their services.

Understating the needs for officers and civilians with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics degrees can diminish the Air Force s ability to maintain vital technical skills. RAND researchers defined which degrees were STEM and asked career field managers and senior authorities to identify those necessary now and in future. The results point to specific areas that the Air Force should review for current and emerging needs."