Organizing and Training Airfield Operations Capabilities for Emerging Expeditionary Operations

Airfield operations (AO) officer and enlisted career fields provide air traffic control; airfield management; and radar, airfield, and weather systems services for the U.S. Air Force (USAF), in-garrison and deployed, during peacetime and across the competition continuum. The objective of this project is to identify ways to enhance the ability of the AO career fields to respond to the needs created by the Dynamic Force Employment (DFE) concept and the USAF implementation of Agile Combat Employment (ACE). The research team on this project used three research streams. A review of USAF and joint documents related to the AO career fields provided background for AO doctrine and missions. Interviews, informal discussions, and other interactions with a variety of subject-matter experts and key stakeholders illuminated current challenges for accomplishing AO missions and highlighted the potential impact of new demands on AO that could result from DFE and ACE approaches. Finally, using AO personnel data and current approaches to ACE concepts, R-based tools were developed to estimate and visualize potential AO demands and available supply that were used to evaluate the ability of AO personnel to meet future demands.