The U.S. Air Force's remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) have played a significant role in current operations in Southwest Asia. As the inventory of RPAs increases and new sensor technologies come online in the coming years, the Air Force has an opportunity to consider additional roles for these aircraft. Thoughtful study into these possibilities will ensure that, when the Air Force employs RPAs, they will help fill capability gaps or augment existing capabilities in moreefficient or more-effective ways. The purpose of this documented briefing is to describe a suite of tools developed by RAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF) to help the Air Force think through future roles for RPAs. It describes tools to evaluate platform selection and concept of operations (CONOPS) development, sensor performance against various targets, weapon effects, environmental factors, platform survivability, computational processing of data, and exploitation of sensor products. This document also explains how the separate analysis in each of these areas feeds into a mission level analysis, performed with PAF's Systems and CONOPS Operational Effectiveness Model (SCOPEM), and a campaign-level analysis using PAF's Force Structure Effectiveness (FSE) model. Use of these tools and models will help clarify how future RPAs can contribute to U.S. warfighting in cost-effective ways. The tools presented here are also useful for examining the effectiveness of new capabilities more broadly (e.g., directed energy weapons or electronic warfare capabilities); examining the effectiveness of new platforms in the context of the entire intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) force posture; and evaluating the most cost-effective ISR force structure to meet future operational needs.

Leading analysts have predicted for decades that nuclear weapons would help pacify international politics. The core notion is that countries protected by these fearsome weapons can stop competing so intensely with their adversaries: they can end their arms races, scale back their alliances, and stop jockeying for strategic territory. But rarely have theory and practice been so opposed. Why do international relations in the nuclear age remain so competitive? Indeed, why are today's major geopolitical rivalries intensifying? In The Myth of the Nuclear Revolution, Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press tackle the central puzzle of the nuclear age: the persistence of intense geopolitical competition in the shadow of nuclear weapons. They explain why the Cold War superpowers raced so feverishly against each other; why the creation of "mutual assured destruction" does not ensure peace; and why the rapid technological changes of the 21st century will weaken deterrence in critical hotspots around the world. By explaining how the nuclear revolution falls short, Lieber and Press discover answers to the most pressing questions about deterrence in the coming decades: how much capability is required for a reliable nuclear deterrent, how conventional conflicts may become nuclear wars, and how great care is required now to prevent new technology from ushering in an age of nuclear instability.

The U.S. Air Force Remotely Piloted Aircraft and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Strategic Vision (hereafter referred to as The Strategic Vision) examines the future role of Air Force remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and their integration with other Air Force and joint systems. The Strategic Vision is presented in five sections. Section I presents an overview of the modern history of RPA and UAV development to provide context for the current situation. Section II describes the current convergence of factors that make RPAs and UAVs attractive investments today. Section III examines the RPA and UAV attributes that make RPAs and UAVs effective platforms for various missions. Attributes such as persistence and versatility contribute to highly capable systems improving the way we currently operate and allow us to do things previously impossible or impractical. Section IV outlines some of the challenges facing RPA and UAV developers, operators, and planners. These challenges include budgetary constraints, training and organizational issues, and policy and legal issues. Section IV also suggests methods for addressing these challenges. Section V describes the strategic vision of integrated RPAs and UAVs contributing to a more effective and efficient fighting force, and presents a series of recommendations to guide the development and integration of Air Force RPAs and UAVs into Air Force and joint plans, operations, and capabilities over the next 20-25 years.

The character of future international conflicts represents a complex and unpredictable set of challenges that necessitates a significant shift in the United States' approach to warfighting. Strategic guidance in Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense reinforces that -...the United States will continue to take an active approach to countering...threats by monitoring the activities of non-state threats worldwide, working with allies and partners to establish control over ungoverned territories, and directly striking the most dangerous groups and individuals when necessary. The U.S. Air Force (USAF) Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) Vector-Vision and Enabling Concepts: 2013-2038 balances the effects envisioned in the USAF Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan 2009-2047 with the reality of constrained resources and ambitious national strategy for a complex world. More importantly, as a visionary document, the RPA Vector opens the aperture beyond current austere fiscal realities to explore art of the possible technologies in the 2013-2038 timeframe. The intent is to examine technological advances necessary to enable the Air Force's future RPA force.

From infant car seats to the design of aircraft cargo bay structures that can withstand bomb blasts, the government is taking the lead in survivability standards. The extensively illustrated new edition of this book presents the fundamentals of the aircraft combat survivability design discipline as defined by the DoD military standards and acquisition processes.

The purpose of this book is to examine future policy options for developing Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) as tankers to perform the air-refueling (AR) mission against RPA receivers. It utilizes a Delphi methodology to obtain input from a panel of experts and senior military leaders. A three-round Delphi targeted a panel of five experts to brainstorm ideas, rate these ideas, and finally determine consensus. A separate standalone round targeted six senior leaders (SL); the questioning in this round was identical to the expert panel's second round and was intended to draw in SLs while minimizing their time requirements. Ultimately, of the 43 ideas generated by the expert panel during the initial round, 46.5% reached consensus within the expert panel in a direction other than a neutral opinion. In contrast, the SL round found intersections of consensus on only 16.3% of the ideas in a direction other than neutral. Thus, this book produces clear direction for future development, as well as identifying areas requiring more focus to achieve consensus.