New Release Books by Frank Camm

The authors describe an unconstrained ?clean sheet? approach to space acquisition for the U.S. Space Force designed around the unique mission and calling of the new service.

As the United States creates the Space Force as a service within the Department of the Air Force, RAND assessed which units to bring into the Space Force, analyzed career field sustainability, and drew lessons from other defense organizations. The report focuses on implications for effectiveness, efficiency, independence, and sense of identity for the new service.

This report is the last of a six-volume series in which RAND explores the elements of a national strategy for the conduct of U.S. foreign policy. It analyzes U.S. strengths and weaknesses, and suggests adaptations for this new era of turbulence and uncertainty. The report offers three alternative strategic concepts and evaluates their underlying assumptions, costs, risks, and constraints.

The Space Enterprise Vision (SEV), developed jointly by Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) and the National Reconnaissance Office in 2015, describes an integrated approach to building a force across all space mission areas, coupling the delivery of space capabilities with the ability to defend space capabilities. Achieving this vision requires reducing acquisition time lines and improving integration of the space enterprise. Given that the SEV requires a departure from the way space systems are currently acquired, AFSPC headquarters and Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) asked RAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF) to assess key barriers to realizing the SEV and recommend ways to overcome those barriers to help achieve the SEV goals. The research team examined a range of potential approaches to support the goals of the SEV, based on a literature review and semistructured interviews with acquisition subject matter experts and sponsor guidance. PAF identified several promising alternative acquisition approaches that merit in-depth examination in this project: modular open system architectures (MOSA), agile acquisition, rapid prototyping. These concepts are not new, but implementing them in a Department of Defense (DoD) setting is challenging for a variety of reasons. Therefore, the examination focuses on likely challenges to implementation and recommendations to overcome them to improve the likelihood of success should these acquisition approaches have a role in the SEV. Each of these acquisition approaches can be implemented independently, but there are instances in which they may be used synergistically, as illustrated in the body of the report.

Large U.S. coal reserves and viable technology make promising a domestic industry producing liquid fuels from coal. Weighing benefits, costs, and environmental issues, a productive and robust U.S. strategy is to promote a limited amount of early commercial experience in coal-to-liquids production and to prepare the foundation for managing associated greenhouse-gas emissions, both in a way that reduces uncertainties and builds future capabilities.

This document explains how to apply guidance on project evaluation to product support business case analyses in a way that allows senior Department of Defense decisionmakers to use net present value to compare courses of action.

Concerned about U.S. Department of Defense contracts for private-sector services, Congress mandated development of an inventory of contract activities. RAND conducted a review of the system, stakeholder needs, and alternative data sources.

Performance-based accountability systems (PBASs) link incentives to measured performance to improve public services. This report explores PBAS design and effectiveness in child care, education, health care, emergency preparedness, and transportation.

To summarize trends and identify factors contributing to bid protest activity and outcomes in Air Force procurements, the authors assembled data from Air Force administrative databases on procurement activity and protests and developed statistical models to analyze bid protests.