Research for Analyses

In the wake of a changing defense climate, the Navy is continuing to find ways to adjust to its smaller size while maintaining its ability to respond when required. An important part of strategy is to monitor readiness during the downsizing process. The first step toward managing readiness is to understand what readiness is and why it changes over time or among units. This paper contributes to the further understanding of readiness by identifying the relationship between standard readiness measures and their determinants for Navy fighter, attack, and fighter/attack aircraft. The analysis is an extension of our earlier work on explaining the readiness of surface combatants. Our objective was to build a comprehensive database of navy fighter and attack units over time and identify readiness trends and relationships between readiness determinants and readiness measures where they exist.

The purpose of Emerald Express was to bring together senior representatives from military, relief, political, and diplomatic communities to address issues that arise during Humanitarian Assistance and Peace Operations (HA/POs). In this paper, we describe the analysis resulting from Emerald Express '95 (EE95). CNA supported EE95 by providing a series of read-ahead summaries on issues such as coalition operations, mission statement development, and coordination between the military and humanitarian relief organizations. CNA also provided annotated briefings based on early findings of the HAO study team at the time of Emerald Express. This material was intended to raise issues for discussion. During the exercise itself, CNA analysts participated in and observed the working groups.

In November 1994, the Secretary of the Navy asked the Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Research, Development and Acquisition) [ASN(RD&A)] to assess the minimum essential industrial base that the Department must sustain. The assessment was to become part of the FY97 Program Review (PR-97). In turn, ASN(RD&A) asked CNA to help support the assessment process. In addition to PR-97 support, the sponsor asked CNA to develop a framework for addressing industrial base questions because the Navy Department is required to perform many of these industrial base assessments. This paper proposes a CNA methodology for conducting industrial base studies. It is designed as an instructional document to guide analysts in capturing economic sources of industrial base risks. This framework helps to identify likely problems and then to tailor feasible solutions. The framework is general enough to be applied to a wide variety of industrial base items. The goal of this paper is to separate the important factors regarding the industrial base from the extraneous ones. By highlighting the key elements and economic dynamics, the methodology can support Navy and Marine Corps decisions on critical industrial base issues.

Title IV of the Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 (also known as the Goldwater-Nichols Act) requires officers to serve in a billet on the Joint Duty Assignment List (JDAL) before being promoted to flag rank. This research memorandum examines whether this requirement can be executed for all naval officers promoted to flag. The size of the JDAL and average tour length are used to calculate the average number of officers per cohort who can be expected to achieve this requirement in each officer community. Various modifications in the requirement are also explored to determine their effect on the percentage of officers likely to achieve the requirement.