The first 15 of USAF’s new breed of dedicated Air Liaison Officers last week completed their 13-day joint air and space operations training provided by Air Force Warfare Center’s 505th Command and Control Wing at Hurlburt Field, Fla. This training for the ground-breaking ALO class—comprising newly commissioned officers, Air National Guardsmen, and prior enlisted Tactical Air Control Party airmen—will enable them to “understand the systems and procedures to best support the Army,” said D.L. Hendricks, course director and instructor and himself a former TACP. The Air Force departed this year from previous policy of using only rated officers on temporary assignments to fill ALO slots, creating the dedicated 13L ALO field and expects to establish a 70 percent career to 30 percent rated temporary ratio of ALOs. (505th CCW release)
Unmanned aerial vehicles and autonomous aircraft may provide a solution to operating in heavily contested domains such as the Taiwan Straits, according to a panel of expert who suggested operationalizing artificial intelligence for such purposes sooner rather than later. The group gathered virtually to help launch the Mitchell Institute for…