Air Force Intelligence Training:
Vector to the 21st Century
by Senior Master Sergeant Alan R. Dowling, USAF
U.S. Air Force intelligence has always been geared to
the needs of the warrior. Traditionally, Air Force general military
intelligence (GMI) has focused on tactical and strategic
intelligence requirements of the combat Air Force. These
requirements included target identification, mission planning, air
crew support, and battle damage assessment. Cryptologic
intelligence has focused primarily on the needs of national
consumers and has held a more strategic view.
Air Force intelligence requirements have evolved into less of a
stovepipe structure since Operation DESERT STORM. They now
integrate GMI and cryptologic intelligence to effectively satisfy
both tactical and strategic intelligence requirements. As with all
military operations, effective training is critical to the success
of this structure.
Training is a key area in the Air Force Intelligence Strategic
Plan. The plan's goal is to produce intelligence experts
thoroughly versed in Air Force operations and to institutionalize
flexible, responsive training processes. This training goal
directly supports the Strategic Plan's value on people, stressing
people as the key to team success and emphasizing personal and
professional growth. Training is a linchpin in the Air Force
Intelligence Vision of delivering unsurpassed intelligence and
achieving operational supremacy through information dominance.
Cradle to Grave Training
The Air Force considers education and training as a career-long
process, involving professional military education (PME) and
technical training. Officers and enlisted personnel have several
levels of mandatory PME.
Enlisted or officer personnel who enter intelligence can expect a
robust initial training period. The goal of Air Force intelligence
training is to produce a mission- ready intelligence professional
skilled in aerospace and information warfare concepts and able to
collect, analyze, and disseminate intelligence from all sources to
effectively support or conduct operations at the component and
joint level. Officers attend more than 31 weeks of technical
training. Following basic training, enlisted personnel attend Air
Force specialty code (AFSC) technical training for 13 to 90 weeks,
depending on the course.
The Air Education and Training Command's 17th Training Group (TRG)
at Goodfellow Air Force Base (AFB), Texas, conducts the majority of
Air Force intelligence training. Goodfellow AFB is a former World
War II bomber training base in San Angelo, Texas. The 1000-acre
base boasts excellent training facilities, recently constructed,
quality billeting and base housing, as well as a recreation area at
one of the nearby lakes. The 17th TRG graduates approximately 6,500
enlisted personnel and 350 officers every year from all the
Services.
Although the 17th TRG provides most of the Air Force's intelligence
training, some AFSC training occurs at the other Services' bases,
including the Presidio in Monterey, California; the U.S. Army
Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca, Arizona; and the Naval
Technical Training Center (NTTC) at Corry Station in Pensacola,
Florida.
Enlisted Career Path
Enlisted personnel have a specified career path that includes four
levels of technical skill: apprentice, journeyman, craftsman, and
superintendent, followed by chief enlisted manager. They achieve
these skill levels through a combination of technical training and
experience.
Apprentice (Skill Level 1-4). Once individuals graduate from basic training, they receive their intelligence AFSC and, upon arrival at
their first assignment location, enter a period of qualification
training. This on-the-job (OJT) training familiarizes personnel
with the local mission and lets them apply the skills and knowledge
learned during formal training. This mission qualification period
can be quite extensive; for example, by the time enlisted
cryptologic linguists qualify to work the mission without
supervision, they have typically been in the Air Force nearly three
years. Skill levels beyond apprentice represent both experience in
the job and further training.
Journeyman (Skill Level 5). After three months of this
apprenticeship period, airmen's supervisors may enroll them in
upgrade training for the next skill level. This consists of
specific OJT requirements and often a correspondence course. The
airman can expect upgrade training for 12 months. To receive skill
level 5, apprentices must attain senior airman rank (E-4) which
takes about 36 months.
Craftsman (Skill Level 7). Air Force policy requires a mandatory, in-residence course for skill level 7. For this skill level, an
individual can expect upgrade training for 18 months. Furthermore,
individuals must be staff sergeants (E-5) to reach skill level 7.
The average promotion time for this rank is 7.5 years.
Superintendent (Skill Level 9). An individual upgrades to skill
level 9 upon promotion to senior master sergeant (E-8) and
completion of the Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy.
Chief Enlisted Manager. The training path peaks at the Chief
Enlisted Manager level when an individual attains the rank of chief
master sergeant (E-9).
Career Field Education and Training
All AFSCs must have a Career Field Education and Training Plan
(CFETP). The Air Force Career Field Manager (AFCFM) formulates the
CFETP for that AFSC, along with representatives from major commands
and joint activities. This document is in all enlisted training
records, allowing all personnel in an AFSC to have a clear view of
their career field's requirements and opportunities. Each career
field CFETP contains career progression information, all the
mandatory and suggested training related to that AFSC. The plan
also includes the specialty training standards that stipulate the
mandatory tasks and knowledge requirements for each skill level.
Air Force policy encourages officer CFETPs and one is under
development for the intelligence officer career field.
The Air Force Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence's AFCFMs
establish policy for intelligence career fields and are responsible
for monitoring how units use personnel in the AFSCs and ensure
training. They must also accurately classify career field
requirements. AFCFMs monitor use through close coordination with
the commands and joint activities that use the intelligence career
personnel.
Training Requirements
Intelligence training has always been user-defined. Through Air
Force or Department of Defense (DOD) forums, major commands or
other DOD operational users state the need for the specific skills
and knowledge required of each Air Force intelligence specialty.
These requirements are the basis for AFSC training. The pace of
technology, force drawdowns, and greatly broadened Air Force
missions, both traditional and non-traditional, are causing rapid
changes in operations. The scope and pace of these changes
highlight the need to forecast potential training needs early in
order to prepare training for these new missions and requirements.
Lieutenant General Kenneth A. Minihan, the Air Force Assistant
Chief of Staff for Intelligence, has established an Intelligence
Training Advisory Board (ITAB) to study and discuss changing
defense intelligence activities, project training requirements to
support those activities, and craft new, more effective training
approaches. The ITAB consists of a core cadre, core functional
staff, and subject matter experts. The core cadre ensures
consistency in methodology and provides input as necessary. The
core functional staff helps provide the ITAB with a
non-intelligence perspective on issues. The transitory functional
staff membership varies, composed of individuals with expertise in
the issue before the ITAB. The ITAB better prepares the training
community for future intelligence missions and requirements by
ensuring training reflects operational reality.
The Air Force has streamlined the process for validating training
requirements in order to speed training development. Under this
streamlined process, the Education and Training Division (ETD) in
the Air Intelligence Agency (AIA) is the focal point for training
requirements identification. (See Figure 1.) ETD is the conduit for
feedback between AIA field units, major commands, the 17th TRG, and
the AIA liaison officers with the Intelligence Air Staff
(intelligence counterpart officers). The ETD evaluates feedback,
validates changed or new requirements with the major commands,
joint activities, other Services, and DOD agency users, and
provides those training requirements to the 17th TRG. Similarly,
the ITAB forwards potential training requirements that they have
identified to ETD for validation. The training requirements
associated with information warfare will be the topic for the first
ITAB.
Information Warfare Training
Information warfare is an outgrowth of telecommunications
technology. Industrialized nations have easy access to information
through computers, modems, telecommunications nodes, satellites,
and so forth. The Air Force views information warfare as another
realm of warfare. Within the information warfare environment are
additional warfare options against traditional air targets and
corresponding vulnerabilities.
General Ronald R. Fogleman, Air Force Chief of Staff, considers
information warfare so important to warfighting that an Air Force
team recently briefed every commander in chief of the U.S. unified
commands on Air Force efforts to incorporate information warfare
into doctrine and integrate it into force deployment. Some level of
information warfare training will be included in all Air Force AFSC
training. Several AFSCs, including intelligence, will likely deal
heavily in an information warfare environment; these career fields
will tailor training to meet their specific information warfare
needs.
Changing Structure and Mission
Information warfare is not the only challenge for intelligence
training. The Air Force has undergone unprecedented change in the
last few years. There has been a top-down restructuring of the Air
Force to meet the needs of a post-Cold War world and force
drawdowns. Furthermore, policy changes made technical and upgrade
training more thorough and meaningful. The force restructure and
training policy changes have combined with new technology to create
new opportunities for intelligence training.
Like the other Services, Air Force manpower has been shrinking at
the same time the multi-polar world has caused missions to
drastically expand. Additionally, due to high operational tempo,
new intelligence graduates must apply their training earlier than
their predecessors in an environment where missions constantly
evolve. These factors directly impact intelligence training. In the
past, the Air Force updated training requirements on a three- to
five-year cycle, unless field input or usage changes dictated the
need for an out-of-cycle review. Course design and implementation
took up to eighteen months. In the post-Cold War world, mission
requirements change rapidly; the training paradigm for a bipolar
world is less effective in today's multi-polar global situation.
To meet these rapidly evolving requirements, the 17th TRG
commander, Colonel Donald Freeman, challenged his training staff to
improve curriculum development and delivery. They responded with
ideas that are driving changes to traditional Air Education and
Training Command course design. These include essay tests for some
courses and an expanded, week-long, simulated exercise scenario
designed to provide officer and enlisted students a realistic
introduction to intelligence operations by combining elements of
both GMI and cryptologic intelligence training.
The 17th TRG is addressing what is euphemistically called the "data
dump syndrome" in order to overcome the memorize-test-forget method
of learning of some its courses. The Voice Processing Training
System (VPTS), a computer-based system designed for cryptologic
linguist training, is a continuing success. In the VPTS training,
students receive knowledge training on a subject, then they are
immediately given opportunities to apply that knowledge in
performance exercises. This process strongly reinforces the
knowledge training.
Goodfellow AFB is also reengineering intelligence officer training,
dramatically changing the way instructors present information to
the students. Historically, instructors gave officer students huge
amounts of information in the traditional lecture method and tested
their retention using multiple choice tests. The new training
direction in shifts the responsibility for learning to the
individual student, using a classroom design that closely emulates
a standard field unit. The day's learning activities center around
a typical work day at the unit. Students, under an instructor's
supervision, research and present briefings on topics formerly
taught by instructor lectures. Students then use the information
from these briefings in a series of daily operational activities
patterned after normal unit functions. Verification of learning no
longer relies on multiple choice tests; instructors ask students to
provide short answers to questions or write essay responses to
ensure they have mastered the material. So far these innovations
have only been in officer training. The 17th TRG at Goodfellow AFB
will evaluate the results and plans to implement similar changes in
enlisted training courses.
Exportable Training
Technology is driving another training innovation: new methods of
exportable training. Also termed "distance learning" and "job-site
training," exportable training courses can be on computer disk or
in multimedia forums (compact disk-read only memory, secure video
teleconferencing, etc.). If trainers can effectively teach a course
via exportable means, the training becomes less expensive and more
accessible. An obvious advantage is the cost savings: units need
not pay costs associated with temporary duty assignments to
training. An additional advantage is the potential for exportable
training to reach a much larger audience, as training schedules can
adjust around mission constraints. The Air Force offers several
such intelligence courses. For example, the new Joint Imagery
Analysis Course, an exportable version of the Defense Sensor
Interpretation and Applications Training Program (DSIATP), will be
available in the fall of 1995.
Consolidated Training
The Air Force has a long-standing commitment to seek efficiencies
and reduce redundancy through consolidated training. The training
may be consolidated (teaching identical Services' training
requirements) or colocated (teaching at the same school using
differing Service standards as training requirements). In the past
several years, there has been a significant trend for all Service
personnel to receive training on tasks and knowledge requirements
common to all Services. This training is truly joint in that an Air
Force student may receive skill training formerly taught only to
U.S. Navy and Marine Corps counterparts who, in many cases, are now
learning what were once Air Force-only skills. Such graduates are
well prepared to function in a joint operational intelligence
environment.
Joint Training
The U.S. experience in Operations DESERT SHIELD and DESERT STORM
emphasized the importance of joint warfare. Just as we should train
the way we fight, the Air Force remains committed to joint
training. DOD appoints a Service as responsible training authority
for specific intelligence systems or as executive agent for
intelligence disciplines. The Air Force is the executive agent for
advanced imagery training. The DSIATP course is the only Air Force
GMI executive agent training currently available to all Service
personnel. However, the Air Force plays a larger role in
multi-Service intelligence training as a part of the Cryptologic
Training System (CTS).
Within the CTS, the Air Force is the executive agent for
cryptologic linguist and analysis and reporting training; both
disciplines are at Goodfellow AFB. (See Figure 2.) At Goodfellow
AFB, soldiers, sailors, and marines are in a unique situation;
outside the training compound, personnel are responsible to their
respective Service units. However, when their work involves
cryptologic training (i.e., as instructors or curriculum
developers) they report through the appropriate training squadron
to the 17th TRG commander. Under the CTS, the Air Force plays a
part in the other Services' intelligence training facilities as
well, with training squadrons at Fort Huachuca for Morse code
training, and NTTC Corry Station for signals analysis training.
These training squadrons have the same dual reporting situation at
those locations as Army, Navy, and Marine Corps personnel do at
Goodfellow AFB.
An excellent example of joint cryptologic intelligence training is
the Consolidated Intermediate Analysis and Reporting Course
(CIARC). Multi-Service working groups crafted the training
requirements for this course; the course uses advanced hardware and
software. CIARC came on line in April 1995. It is also unique in
that the Air Force agreed to let the Army teach CIARC in
conjunction with its Basic Noncomissioned Officer Course at the
Military Intelligence Noncommissioned Officers Academy at Fort
Huachuca, Arizona. The Air Force made this decision to aid the Army
with its concept of dual PME and technical training. However, as
executive agent, the Air Force retains responsibility for course
content and will ensure training meets Air Force and course
training standards.
U.S. Air Force intelligence is focusing on the future, which holds
challenges and opportunities. In addition to information warfare
and responsive training development to meet rapidly changing
mission needs, the Air Force Career Field Managers are working with
operations and training personnel to ensure mission requirements
and training delivery keep pace with each other. Air Force
intelligence training continues to meet today's requirements while
preparing for the needs of the intelligence professional of the
21st century.
Senior Master Sergeant Dowling is Chief, Cryptologic
Intelligence Force Management and Foreign Language Programs for the
Force Management and Training Team, Directorate of Plans, Policy,
and Evaluation, Air Force Assistant Chief of Staff for
Intelligence. He has performed a variety of duties in the
cryptographic linguist career field, most recently as cryptologic
linguist superintendent and flight commander. You can reach him at
DSN 761-4784 or commercial (703) 681-4784.