Heading toward its vision of a centralized, more efficient one-stop schoolhouse for enlisted aircrew training, Air Education and Training Command will end aviation ground school classes at Keesler AFB, Miss., today. The equipment of Keesler’s 332nd Training Squadron is being crated for shipment to Lackland AFB, Tex., home to the new Career Enlisted Aviator Center of Excellence. The Lackland enterprise will assume all ground school training for enlisted aircrew members, saving USAF travel time and money previously spent training students at three different sites. The transition of courses, instructors, and students from Keesler to Lackland began in February, with several courses being taught at both sites concurrently to avoid interruptions in flying and training schedules.
A new Air Force plan for how many fighters it needs in the next decade marks a sharp upturn from what it thought it needed just seven years ago. But analysts worry that the aspirational plan now in Congress' hands doesn’t make a tight enough connection to national strategy.
