Air University (AU) > Office of Sponsored Programs > Research > Articles

April 24, 2026
SOF Talent Management, Sustainability, and Repetitive Assignments

How must the Special Operations Enterprise adapt its talent management, retention strategies, and force sustainability programs to develop resilient personnel equipped for strategic competition and support to resistance, while reconciling conflicting service and combatant command priorities
April 24, 2026
Modernizing Professional Military Education and SOF Learning Pathways through Emerging Technologies

How must the defense enterprise, particularly the Joint Special Operations University, leverage emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing to modernize professional military education, personalize learning pathways, and cultivate the specialized critical thinkers
April 23, 2026
Implementation, Absorption Capacity, and Bridging the Gap from Innovation to Sustainment

How must the United States Air Force analyze the People's Liberation Army's capability absorption capacity while reforming its own Category Management frameworks and DOTMLPF integration to bridge the innovation "Valley of Death" and accelerate fielding at scale?
April 23, 2026
Intelligence Production in Agile Combat Employment

How can Large Language Models and other AI tools be leveraged to automate and scale the production of intelligence products, using the 363rd ISRW as a test case, to meet the rapid demands of Agile Combat Employment?
April 23, 2026
Next-Generation Missile Operators

Given the potential changes in the future strategic environment, what impact would this have on the development of missileers? Should current developmental programs remain the same for Sentinel operators? (20 AF)
April 23, 2026
PLA Meteorological Challenges and Dependencies

What are the meteorological challenges and dependencies that a PLA combined arms assault on Taiwan would face? (557 WW)
April 23, 2026
Organizing SOF for Irregular Warfare: Networks, TSOC Restructuring, and Collaboration

How must the Special Operations Enterprise restructure its global networks, Theater Special Operations Commands, and interagency liaisons to effectively integrate allied strategies and the space-SOF-cyber triad for transregional irregular warfare and Support to Resistance and Resilience?
April 23, 2026
Support to Resistance and Resilience Approaches to Preventing or Deterring Aggression

How can SOF develop a comprehensive framework for assessing, planning, and implementing support to resilience and resistance, incorporating human-centric strategies, measurable metrics, and lessons from past conflicts to effectively deter aggression and navigate complex civil-military dynamics?
April 22, 2026
Civil Support to Defense Activities and Interagency Command and Control

How can the Department of Defense formalize a Civil Support to Defense Activities (CSDA) framework to effectively leverage interagency resources during homeland defense operations, while utilizing JADC2 to build unified command and control structures that overcome interagency classification and
April 22, 2026
Historical Battle Networks

By analyzing the evolution and effectiveness of battle networks as integrated systems of sensors, analytics, and strike in previous conflicts, what can be learned about the most efficient and adaptable operational approaches, organizational concepts, and command structures for their employment?