The USAF Strategic Master Plan posited five strategic vectors to help prioritize investments, drive institutional change, and operationalize key concepts. These included providing effective twenty-first-century deterrence; maintaining a robust and flexible global intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capability; ensuring a full-spectrum capable, high-end focused force; pursuing a multidomain approach to the Air Force’s five core missions; and continuing to pursue game-changing technologies. Arguably Air Education and Training Command (AETC) supports all of these vectors; however, the call for a full-spectrum capable, high-end focused force falls squarely within the AETC mission. AETC was tasked with preparing for the future, yet much...
We anticipate four emergent threats that will drive “profound and rapid change over the next 20 years: geopolitics; natural resources; challenges to the global commons; [and the] speed of technological change.”² These threats, coupled with resource constraints, the age of our Air Force platforms, the fact that our service is rebounding from its lowest numbers in its entire history, and the realization that our force-development strategies differ very little from those of the past all combined into a wake-up call for senior leaders. Our Air Force requires innovative solutions to deal with these new challenges.
One should not assume from...
The current service initiatives are not an admission that we no longer hold the lead position in terms of military might and prowess; however, it is clear to our leaders that the rest of the world is catching up. Further, the breadth of challenges means US fighting forces may be called upon to achieve critical security objectives across a range of operational areas simultaneously. That requires a tremendous level of agility—intellectual and operational agility! Workforce revitalization, increased cognitive complexity, and expanded intellectual agility are absolutely necessary for our success in the future. So the answer to the question “why...
One desired location for expanded learning opportunities is the Air Force squadron. This correlates to Gen Goldfein’s emphasis on revitalizing Air Force squadrons, which he wants to be the centerpieces of Airmen’s service. He wants Air Force squadrons to be places where Airmen bond, learn, lead, develop, sustain the Air Force culture, and have fun together. Consequently, he is enthusiastically supporting our efforts to move more learning opportunities into the squadrons.
Using modularized learning, available anywhere and anytime, we can make learning opportunities readily available within squadrons; however, there is one piece that we cannot replicate: human interaction. This is...
One innovation that will leverage collaborative learning in areas where there is an absence of local expertise are our developmental special experiences (DSE), which are immersive learning experiences that place Airmen into situations where they can experience the full gamut of real-world events specific to desired learning outcomes. For instance, if the Air Force needs air operations center (AOC) expertise, sending Airmen to actually work in a functional AOC might be invaluable in imparting the necessary knowledge and skills to ensure future success. Similarly, we might send Airmen to work with the Army’s III Corps at Fort Hood, Texas, to...
Our Secretary and Chief of Staff are 100 percent behind us. They approved the redesigned Continuum of Learning and reinforced their commitment with a decision to empower a single Force Development Commander with enterprise-level oversight over the entire developmental paradigm. We will discuss this new position in a future article, but for now, it is important to note the demonstrated commitment to developing Airmen inherent in this decision.
We are also receiving resources to achieve success in this mission. AETC has already pulled its entire leadership team together to start implementing these changes and is redistributing resources to expedite success....
