Air Education and Training Command chief Gen. Edward Rice said on Wednesday he was interested in examining the Air Force’s “entire training system,” not just new aircraft platforms, to determine how better to train and support the future force. Speaking at the Four-Star Forum of AFA’s 2013 Air and Space Conference in National Harbor, Md., Rice said he believed the Air Force could shift a lot of the training it currently does on expensive platforms to less expensive ones or simulators. “I think [the future force] looks very different from the fourth generation concept that we use today,” said Rice. He referenced the need for a new advanced trainer, hoping it would serve as a “jumping off point” toward guaranteeing airmen the “world-class training” needed for a fifth generation force. “We really have an open window to change that model in a way that allows us to be much more effective in a shorter period of time to get an even greater product out” to train airmen, he said.
The advanced F-47 sixth-generation fighter remains on track to fly in the next two years, the senior Air Force acquisition officer overseeing the program said Feb. 25, as the service continues on its ambitious schedule to debut the air superiority-focused fighter by 2028—only three years after the contract was awarded…
