Aft and Fore A Retrospective and Prospective Analysis of Navy Officer Management

摘要

The Navy recently examined its officer structure with an eye toward determining how well it can meet current and future demands. It was particularly interested in gaps between the supply of and demand for officers and the potential costs of such gaps. Of equal interest was how demands might change in the future and whether the current system for managing officers-accession, development, assignment, promotion, and, ultimately, separation-would satisfy tomorrow's requirements. The Navy asked RAND's National Defense Research Institute (NDRI) to assist and, more specifically, for an analysis of the documents-studies, statutes, and policies- that influence personnel authorizations and inventory and for a catalogue of the changes in both over the past 20 years; a comparison between authorizations and inventory and an analysis of the cost of any differences and an estimate on the personnel requirements for 2010 and 2017. The purpose of these estimates was not to determine specific requirements. Rather, it was to assess the adequacy of officer personnel management practices to manage the types of structures that would exist then.