American airmen will learn new skills outside their normal job roles in the US Air Force (USAF) as part of a two-week long Tactical Leadership Course.
Undertaken for the first time at the end of January 2025, the training is intended to ensure personnel are ready to perform duties effectively in a rapidly changing operational environment. This flexible training approach – with a focus on practicing skills from across different career fields – is necessary for Agile Combat Employment, or ACE.
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Instructors from unique career fields led the course with the aim of broadening the training spectrum.
“Having a mixed [career field] class allowed networking and skills transfer that enables ACE implementation,” said Tech. Sgt. Charles Price, 379th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron explosive ordnance disposal operations section chief.
“Current conflicts have highlighted the importance of preparation, as even non-combat personnel may find themselves in combat situations.”
Ukraine demonstrates a need for mixed skills
Over the course of their three-year-long war against invading Russian forces, Ukrainian troops have demonstrated flexibility in adapting to the new battlespace. But as the war as dragged on training has become challenging.
According to a US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, Ukraine relies on a core of professional units to conduct operations and respond to Russian advances. However, losses and exhaustion continue to degrade these units’ capabilities, as they appear increasingly called on to staff various positions across the front line.
Often, rather than fighting as cohesive formations, CRS observed that sections of units are detached and sent to other units to compensate for losses. Some observers speculate that overreliance on a few units combined with personnel losses may contribute to Russian advances.
A holistic training approach, much like the USAF’s course, would be beneficial to Ukrainian troops jumping from one unit to another to maintain the front lines.
What is ACE?
The USAF defines ACE as a proactive and reactive operational scheme of manoeuvre executed within threat timelines to increase survivability while generating combat power.
‘ACE’ often conjures an image of the USAF strategy to scatter planes to survive, which is true. This is particularly the case in the Pacific theatre during World War II as part of the island-hopping campaign, and it is beginning to be applied to the wider Indo-Pacific against Chinese military aggression in the vast region.
But the ACE definition is broader than this; it also applies to a proactive approach for preparing airmen for expeditionary operations:
“[Airmen] are enabled by cross-utilisation training and can operate as part of a team in an expeditionary environment to accomplish mission objectives within acceptable levels of risk.”
What did US airmen do?
The first week consisted of training in tactical combat casualty care, conduct after capture, survival, evasion, resistance, escape, counter-improvised explosive devices, and structures and pallet building.
Throughout the second week, students received training in mounted and dismounted operations, close quarters combat, urban operations, air base ground defence, and live-fire shooting at a firing range.
Upon completing the two-week course, students participated in a culminating field training exercise, which simulated the scenario of securing a cold airfield in an austere location.
Cold airfields have no US or allied personnel present in the area, requiring students to operate independently and apply their skills self-sufficiently.
