RAND Project AIR FORCE Annual Report 2007 - RAND Corporation

and CapabilitiesAs the Air Force has found itself reflecting on its history, it hasalso been contemplating where it is going and what it needs todo now to get there. That future encompasses not only theresponsibilities in the air that gave birth to the service 60 years ago andthose in space that are so critical today but also, increasingly, those in thecyber domain.Yet, as the service contemplates institutional changes to accommodateshifting demands, it must also keep in mind that resources are limited.Contending with growing financial pressures means setting prioritiesand making decisions that are not necessarily comfortable.Consolidation Is Never ComfortableThis is what happened in 2006. DoD had to find the resources for urgentrecapitalization projects and asked for the services’ cooperation. Withinthe Air Force, the Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) thought itcould help, to the tune of nearly $400 million of its budget, by streamliningsome of its test and evaluation (T&E) facilities and capabilities.The required consolidation would most directly affect Eglin AFB,Florida, with its 46th Test Wing moving and being consolidated withthe 412th Test Wing at Edwards AFB, California. This would limit theamount of testing that could be done at Eglin. In addition, AFMC’s planwould affect a number of test facilities at Eglin and at other locations.It is perhaps not surprising that this would raise concerns amongthose who lived and worked on or near Eglin and, through them, theirrepresentatives. However, it soon became apparent that the move wouldhave consequences for a broader set of interested parties. It also becameclear that a second look was indeed in order. In late 2006, Congresscalled for further study of the AFMC proposal, and the Air Force askedPAF to perform the analysis.Getting a Complete Picture Required Takinga Multidisciplinary ApproachTo gather the data for its analysis, the PAF team was able to count onPAF’s ongoing partnership with the Air Force, which made it possible togather financial data from test facilities, test-center staff, and customerswith which to calculate the economic costs and benefits of the proposal.Maj.Paul“Max”Moga,thefirstF-22ARaptorDemonstrationTeampilot,doesa“maxclimb” seconds after takeoff.Annual Report 2007 43