John Matsumura

This document explains how to apply standard Office of Management and Budget and Department of Defense (DoD) guidance on project evaluation to product support business case analyses (BCAs) in a way that allows senior DoD decisionmakers to use net present value as the dominant figure of merit for comparing courses of action. Findings are stated in BCA dollar value terms, which are figures of merit that decisionmakers understand intuitively.

Comparing U. S. Army Systems with Foreign Counterparts: Identifying Possible Capability Gaps and Insights from Other Armies contrasts selected U. S. Army systems and capabilities with comparable foreign weapons. The research focused on armored fighting vehicles, helicopters, rocket and cannon artillery, and various logistics platforms. The armies that were selected for the comparisons included U. S. allies as well as potential future opponents.

The Defence Science and Technology Group asked RAND for help in assessing the range of trade-offs between tracked and wheeled combat vehicle classes. This report details three key tasks: (1) assessing lessons learned about tracked and wheeled combat vehicles in conflict around the world; (2) assessing the implications of advanced technologies on the vehicle classes; and (3) examining system-level implications of the different classes of vehicles.

The U. S. armed forces must be prepared to deploy to a wide range of locations and confront adversaries that span the threat spectrum. This report reviews selected findings from a study of Army and joint anti-access and area denial challenges and proposes a joint approach to countering these threats in future operations.

This study identifies key potential users of high-performance computing within the Army science and technology community and develops a strategy to build an initiative that will help the Army compete effectively for Department of Defense computing resources. Particular attention was given to applications of HPC in biotechnology and biomedicine and modeling and simulation of complex battlefield wireless network communication systems.

This documented briefing summarizes research supporting the Rapid Force Protection Initiative (RFPI) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD), with the goal of exploring new technology concepts for the ACTD. The focus of this research was on advanced distributed ground sensors--specifically the air-deliverable acoustic sensor (ADAS)--with emphasis on how such sensors might fit into the current RFPI hunter/standoff killer concept. High-resolution simulation was used to examine and quantify many of the key aspects of performance, environmental effects, and military utility.