Photo By Staff Sgt. Frederick Brown | Air Force Combat Ammunition Course (AFCOMAC) students work on an assembly line known...... read more read more
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BEALE AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – The Combat Ammunition Planning and Production (CAPP) course, provided by the Air Force Combat Ammunition Center (AFCOMAC), is required as part of upgrade training for every U.S. Air Force ammo troop’s career if they hope to make to the 7 and 9 skill level. The course is designed to strengthen the Air Force’s ability to perform mass munitions production operations in a combat environment.
The most recent classes, 24-005 and 24-006, featured a groundbreaking addition in AFCOMAC’s 37-year history that includes over 20,000 students trained across every Major Command in support of Combatant Command requirements worldwide.
For the first time ever, the three-week CAPP course was attended by both US Navy and Marine aviation ordnance troops. Additionally, the first Air Force aircraft armament systems specialist, also known as a weapons loader, graduated from the course. Furthermore, the two-day Senior Officer Orientation (SOO), the companion course to the CAPP, included US Navy and US Marine aviation ordnance officers, marking the first cohort of joint partner attendees in the course.
“Two things are clear about the future fight, it will likely not be fought independently by the United States Air Force, and it has the potential to be an extremely dynamic and challenging scenario,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. William Hinchey, 9th Munitions Squadron commander. “For this reason, we have made it an institutional priority of AFCOMAC to include weapons loaders and joint branch partners into our training to ensure greater interoperability while streamlining our ability to generate combat airpower.”
AFCOMAC’s high-intensity training creates a simulated deployed environment with its culminating Exercise Iron Flag, in which students from a variety of bases with different mission sets create a common set of competencies that can be employed in a real-world scenario. Students of various ranks and personalities go from classroom learning and planning, to building upwards of 1000 live munitions in the field under tight time constraints during Exercise Iron Flag. The joint classroom and hands-on training are constantly evolving based upon real world events and possibilities in order to fulfill joint military operations.
“Integrating joint service trainings is essential to preparing the Navy, Marines, and Air Force to build ordnance together as a cohesive team during real world missions,” said U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Plaza, aviation ordnance supervisor. “By the end of the course, operations procedures and producing munitions with technical expertise felt like second nature to how I would operate with aviation ordnance Sailors.”
With the prospect of future conflict in the face of geopolitical challenges, a unified approach through joint operations enhances the readiness, effectiveness, and lethality of both Air Force and partner branch operations around the globe. Inter-service cooperation such as sharing and disseminating techniques, tactics, and procedures (TTP’s) with joint partner branches bolsters overall mass combat ammunition planning and production.
“The Marine Corps aviation ordnance community is focused on lethality and survivability,” said U.S. Marine Corps Captain Richard J, McGoldrick, aviation ordnance & aviation life support systems officer. “Working together as a joint force allows us to build relationships and share experiences in an effort to optimize future techniques, tactics, and procedures. This also allows us to leverage lessons learned and best practices as we work to understand how to win the future joint fight.”
AFCOMAC’s constant development is symbolic of military wide adjustments to ensure operational readiness and the ability to respond to global challenges.
| Date Taken: | 07.23.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 07.31.2024 13:46 |
| Story ID: | 477469 |
| Location: | BEALE AIR FORCE BASE, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 84 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, AFCOMAC Integrates Joint Partners and Munitions Counterparts into Training, by SSgt Frederick Brown, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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