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April 27, 2026
Trustworthy Integration of Large Language Models: Data Ingestion, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, and Analytic Tradecraft

How must the United States Air Force engineer reliable Large Language Model pipelines—leveraging Retrieval-Augmented Generation and fine-tuning techniques—to securely parse widespread datasets while strictly adhering to Intelligence Community Directive 203's analytic tradecraft
April 27, 2026
Risks to the Strategic Domain of Space from an Ablation Cascade

What are the risks of an adversary deliberately initiating an ablation cascade to deny U.S. strategic space assets, and what protective measures, including potential revisions to the Outer Space Treaty, can be undertaken to mitigate this threat?
April 24, 2026
Digital Twin Technology for Skill Acquisition and Training

How can research explore the effectiveness of using digital twin technology for training SOF functions and support efforts by examining instructional design, user strategies, and the impact on skill transfer and performance improvement?
April 24, 2026
Size of the Future Nuclear Force and Theater Capabilities in a Two-Peer Environment

How must the United States size and structure its future overall nuclear force and specific theater capabilities to successfully deter simultaneous aggression from two nuclear peers—Russia and China—while also managing regional threats like North Korea and reassuring global allies?
April 24, 2026
Transnational Threats, Cybercrime, and Non-State Actors

How can the U.S. military enable regional partners to counter transnational threats in the Western Hemisphere, and how should U.S. cybersecurity policy define restraint, allocate resources, and determine the threshold at which state-affiliated cybercrime and ransomware operations escalate from a law
April 24, 2026
Autonomy, Active Border Defenses, and Partner-Centric Approaches to Security Cooperation

How do partner nation political will, absorptive capacity, and institutional factors shape U.S. security cooperation strategy in the Middle East, and can the implementation of active border defense constructs successfully enable these nations to assume primary responsibility for their own long-term
April 24, 2026
Interoperability, Interdependence, and the Definition of Integration in Combined Operations

How must the United States military and U.S. Forces Japan define the conceptual boundaries of interoperability, interdependence, and integration with Japan's Joint Operations Command, and strategically leverage the Military Personnel Exchange Program across optimal echelons to maximize return on
April 24, 2026
Logistic and Resupply Operations in a Chemical or Radiological Environment

Is the Air Force adequately prepared with the necessary logistics strategies, guidance, and capabilities to sustain critical re-supply operations in the face of chemical or radiological hazards in austere environments?
April 24, 2026
Unmanned Warfare and the Implications of Militarily Relevant COTS Technologies

Does the rapid proliferation of dual-use, commercial-off-the-shelf unmanned and autonomous technologies across all domains constitute a true revolution in military affairs, and how can the Department of Defense accelerate its adoption of these systems while effectively controlling their diffusion to
April 24, 2026
Forecasting Unintended Consequences

How must the Joint Force and the broader defense enterprise utilize cross-regional planning and comprehensive risk characterization frameworks to mitigate the unintended consequences and escalation risks of global operations, while effectively communicating strategic risk and risk aversion to