Author Description

In response to indicators of declining readiness, heightened operations tempo, and evolving force employment concepts, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force (CSAF) initiated a review of Air Force wing-level logistics processes. This review, called the Chiefs Logistics Re- view (CLR), was designed to target process and process-enabler short falls that limited the logistics community's ability to meet increasing readiness demands. This report presents background information and describes the analytic approach (including the RAND Corporation's role in its development) and results of CLR (Phase 1), and it describes how solution options designed to improve wing-level logistics processes were tested and evaluated (Phase 2). This effort was unlike a typical RAND study in that it was a joint effort, with RAND acting as an analytic advisor to the Air Force. RAND was chosen to develop the analytic approach for this review because of its previous research and the confidence of senior Air Force leaders. RAND's involvement was meant to ensure that the CSAF received all potential options and a costs/benefits analysis for each option. The primary catalyst for CLR was a briefing sponsored by Gen John P. Jumper, then Commander, United States Air Forces Europe (USAFE/CC), in September 1999. Entitled "Posturing Aircraft Maintenance for Combat Readiness" and stemming in part from experiences during Operation Allied Force/Operation Noble Anvil, the briefing illustrated declining readiness trends, degraded warfighting skills, and impaired Air and Space Expeditionary Force (AEF) implementation.