Setting Requirements for Maintenance Manpower in the U.S. Air Force
Abstract
Over the last decade, the Air Force has faced challenges that were not foreseen when the Cold War ended. A significant portion of the force has become engaged in contingency operations that have on occasion included fairly intensive combat operations. Added to this stress has been the necessity to support peacekeeping operations even after hostilities have ceased. As the force has declined in number, forward deployments have created an unplanned level of stress. Coupled with these increases in deployments has been an economy beckoning with good jobs and benefits. Experienced people have been leaving the force in unexpected and unwelcome numbers. The result has been a mismatch between taskings and available personnel. Given current taskings, three distinct factors can cause a shortfall in personnel. First, the analytical methods used to determine requirements could be incomplete or biased downward. Second, there could be too few authorized positions to perform the tasks if not all requirements are funded. Third, even when authorizations match the tasks, there could be too few qualified personnel to fill all authorizations. These factors and their permutations could come into play simultaneously: The requirements could be understated and under-funded with authorizations, and there may not be enough qualified people to fill these authorizations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA404477
Entities
People
- Carl J. Dahlman
- David E. Thaler
- Robert Kerchner
Organizations
- RAND Corporation