AURORA, Colo.—The Air Force is extending an exercise at Basic Military Training meant to prepare trainees for Agile Combat Employment, where Airmen disperse in small teams to small air bases to complicate targeting for adversaries.
Known as PACER FORGE (Primary Agile Combat Employment Range, Forward Operations Readiness Generation Exercise), the 36-hour exercise was stretched to 57 hours—three days and two nights—as of March 3, said Angelina Casarez, spokesperson for the 37th Training Wing, which oversees BMT at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas.
“Additional time at PACER FORGE allows for more extensive operational training to create air-minded warfighters with more hands-on experience,” Casarez told Air & Space Forces Magazine.
The head of Air Education and Training Command, Lt. Gen. Brian S. Robinson, first revealed the change March 5 at the AFA Warfare Symposium.
“Instead of being overly prescriptive by [Military Training Instructors], what happens now is ‘here’s the objectives you’re set to achieve, here’s the resources available to you … you have 57 hours to solve this problem and try to achieve the objective,” he said.
“You spent five weeks with what I call ‘conform, conform, conform,’ and now you’re in a place where we want you to understand [that] you need to be able to be agile, flexible, accountable, show initiative and solve problems,” he added.
Trainees will be expected to build and defend operating locations, recover high-value assets, resupply drops, and provide tactical combat casualty care, Casarez said. Working in small teams will also help them practice leadership skills.
The Air Force first introduced PACER FORGE in 2022, replacing the BEAST week that had been in place the previous 16 years. Basic Expeditionary Airman Skills Training was a four-day drill where Airmen practiced responding to mortar attacks, car bombs, unexploded ordnance, sniper fire, and other challenges common on a Middle East deployment.
BEAST took place at a fixed location with large groups of Airmen, but Air Force officials expect Airmen will work in dispersed, isolated locations in a conflict with China or Russia.
“PACER FORGE was designed to be flexible and adaptable to operational requirements, and the changes will continue to develop air-minded warfighters in an airfield-centric environment,” Casarez said.
PACER FORGE is one of several efforts at AETC to bake ACE into junior Airmen from the get-go. That training continues at tech school, where Airmen learn their specific job skills, in an exercise called BRACER FORGE, a more advanced version of PACER FORGE.
“Yesteryear, we would have seen a three-level coming to us at, you pick the wing, who wouldn’t understand what an exercise is,” Robinson said. “And now … they’ve got more experience in those kinds of areas.”
Aircrew students are doing the same thing, recovering and operating out of auxiliary airfields where the logistics support is not as robust as their main training base.
“It’s an exciting time,” Robinson said.
This likely won’t be the last time PACER FORGE changes as AETC keeps pace with real-world demands. A core element of AETC’s shift to Airman Development Command are centers of excellence which can quickly use lessons from the field to tweak institutional training.
“PACER FORGE is an iterative training program, which means as operational needs change, we can adapt as needed to develop Mission-Ready Airmen and Guardians,” Casarez said.