Air Force Special Operations Command has begun a new training program for a select group of its security forces airmen. AFSOC plans to use an 11-week course to “fill a capabilities gap that existed between the [Phoenix] Raven’s training and combat operations found in Iraq and Afghanistan,” says Lt. Col. Erik Rundquist, program manager for the new training for a Deployed Aircraft Ground Response Element, or DAGRE. Phoenix Raven is the training program developed by Air Mobility Command for security forces that fly with mobility aircraft into high threat areas. Maj. Scott Covode reports that the first class of 18 airmen graduated from DAGRE on Friday.
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.