Editor's note: This article, originally featured in the I/ITSEC Show Daily, highlights insights from Lieutenant General Brian S. Robinson, commander of Air Education and Training Command, on how the Air Force is reoptimizing the development of Airmen to meet the strategic demands of great power competition. It has been republished with permission.
In a recent discussion with the I/ITSEC Show Daily, Lieutenant General Brian S. Robinson, Commander of the Air Force Air Education and Training Command (AETC), outlined how the Department of the Air Force has enhanced mission-focused training at all levels while introducing other key initiatives to produce highly capable Airmen efficiently, leveraging data and technology to optimize training and development.
Robinson began by noting the recent decision to redesignate AETC as Airman Development Command (ADC), outlining the thinking underlying how the command is preparing Airmen for the strategic challenges posed by great power competition.
“That involves a lot of work in several different layers,” he began. “But a key part of it involves getting to a more mission-focused training environment at every level. As an example, at the Basic Military Training (BMT) level, we continue to evolve the training, such as introducing the stressors of being in a competitive environment where there are time pressures and friction built in. That’s part number one, because we want Airmen to be critical thinkers. We want them to understand the commander’s intent, the objectives that need to be met despite all the challenges that are coming at them and the time crunch they have to achieve those outcomes.”
To illustrate how this is being implemented, he pointed to an exercise called “Pacer Forge” that is conducted during the sixth week of BMT.
“Essentially, like any assessments training for a military service, it’s about how to become a member of the team; how to become an Airman or Soldier and conforming and meeting the standards. They get a session where they sit in today’s environment and have about 36 hours to solve a problem as a team with resources that are available. That’s all they have. And the MTI [Military Training Instructors] step back into a coaching, safety observer, risk management role, not an overly present instructional and directional role. And that exercise is about to expand into a three-day event in early 2025.”
Robinson highlighted similar approaches with officer training, citing revamping of curriculum in multiple programs, including Officer Training School, Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps and the United States Air Force Academy.
“Again, they are similar adjustments: commander’s intent, mission command. Here’s your team, here are your objectives. Now go forth and solve this by meeting those objectives to the best of your ability,” he said.
Asked how the Air Force is ensuring that training not only focuses on peer or near-peer adversaries but also prepares Airmen for the spectrum of multi-domain operations, Robinson observed that those potential adversaries are already implementing multi-domain operations, adding, “I think the way we get after it is with our focus on bringing information warfare more into the space in terms of how to consume information critically and understand what that means in terms of if you’re being subjected to disinformation or if that’s a reliable source of information,” he said. “In the space domain, we intend to and will, because that’s been General [David] Allvin [Chief of Staff of the Air Force] and the [Air Force] Secretary’s charge, stay closely integrated with the Space Force, because the interdependencies between the Air Force and Space Force and the way those two domains interact is absolutely critical. One cannot exist without the other.”
Turning to a number of key service initiatives that he wanted to highlight for I/ITSEC attendees, Robinson began by pointing to “technologies that are in the learning industry that can be utilized in the way that we need to train and develop our Airmen, going through those various phases of training from an institutional perspective, and then understanding the human performance aspect of it, and how you assess the trainees’ ability to perform and succeed in the environment. It’s more Airman-centric, making the material more available to them.”
He offered a representative example from Keesler Air Force Base, where some simulators have been moved into some training dormitories, explaining, “Now, on the weekends or whenever, an Airman who has the time and wants to practice a certain aspect of a course, driven by the scenario that’s run by technology, can do that. And we’ve seen a significant reduction in the washout rates in that space, on the order of about 30% less washing out for one particular course, and several days earlier in completion as well.”
Another representative example Robinson cited involved establishment of an Enterprise Learning Engineering Center of Excellence at the Major Command level, with a small core of 25-30 people “focused on being dialed into the learning industry at large, again at a more macro level, evaluating those technologies to help us in the innovation space to go after areas where we can put our limited resources after the highest likely payoff, technologies and approaches to training focused on human performance.”
The last area he offered addressed the concept of “mission over function,” where he asserted, “We need to integrate the training sooner than we do today, in terms of core tasks and competencies...For those who are involved in operating an airfield, skills such as air traffic control, airfield lighting, pavement, civil engineers and weather forecasters, what are the common core tasks that group should be able to do, and train that sooner, rather than later on in their careers.”
Summarizing and prioritizing his messages for the I/ITSEC audience, Robinson offered, “The key message I want is for them to understand that we are 100% behind taking advantage of the technologies in the learning industry that have come to bear in the last five or six years, and that are going o continue increasingly to come to bear. We’re going to double down on the use of artificial intelligence in training as well as how we execute our mission roles here as a staff at this level and as the training wings deliver training as well. The third part is, we cannot overestimate the value of data to understand where the specific trainee Airmen are on their path and get them through the training journey to where they need to be.
Source: I/ITSEC Show Daily, Day 4