HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. — The 505th Command and Control Wing graduated the fifth class of Multi-Domain Warfare Officers, also known by their Air Force Specialty Code-designator “Thirteen Oscar,” during a live-streamed ceremony at Hurlburt Field, Florida, on November 19.
For the 18 students, the graduation marks the culmination of a 20-week journey covering 840 hours of intensive joint academics and 310 hours of complex training exercises which honed their operational-planning skills.
The Multi-Domain Warfare Officer career field was created in line with the Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s vision to develop dedicated operational-level command and control, or C2, experts responsible for integrating joint and coalition capabilities across multiple warfighting domains.
The 18 students represent a wide variety of AFSCs from multiple U.S. Air Force major commands, geographic combatant commands, and functional commands and. In addition to U.S. Air Force active duty officers, nine class members represent the U.S. Space Force, Air Reserve Component and Air National Guard units from New York, Virginia, Michigan, and Illinois.
The course, now in its fifth iteration, has evolved with every class to ensure leading-edge training that focuses on preparing the students to lead the operational planning efforts in a complex and uncertain global environment as.
The course’s main focus areas include the Air Operations Center, Air Force Forces staff, joint planning process for air, joint air targeting cycle, Agile Combat Employment, Integrated Air and Missile Defense, information operations, non-kinetic operations, and seminars with each joint and functional component.
“These academics lead in to simulated scenarios across a span of different major operation types in which each student is put into a team that completes multiple repetitions of planning process cycles,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Benjamin Griffith, 705th Training Squadron weapons & tactics director, Hurlburt Field, Florida.
“Along the way, the plans must be approved by the C/JFACC [combined joint force air component commander]and involves planning across Air Force and joint entities.”
Class 21B also represents a number of firsts in its graduating class. The first ever joint partner, U.S. Army Capt. Craig Simmons, represented the Michigan Army National Guard.
“The expertise and partnerships with joint forces are critical to mission success when providing holistic approaches to operational planning for air component commanders,” said USAF Maj. Mark Scott, 705th TRS Thirteen Oscar course director.
“The attendance of the first joint student was invaluable in providing our air component planners a different perspective to ensure operational-level planning is not only synchronized, but integrated across all components”
The newly graduated officers will now go forward to fill critical C2 billets in AOCs, air operations groups, air support squadrons, training squadrons, and other air component staffs across the USAF as well as the National Space Defense Center and USSF.
The next Multi-Domain Warfare Officer Initial Skills Training class begins in January 2022 with class 22A and aims to continue improving upon operational C2 to deliver solutions for air component commands.
The 705th TRS reports to the 505th Test and Training Group and 505th Command and Control Wing, both are headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Florida.
