The 618th Tanker Airlift Control Center at Scott AFB, Ill., is now known as the 618th Air and Space Operations Center (Tanker Airlift Control Center). The center’s mission remains unchanged: serving as the hub for global airlift, air refueling, and aeromedical operations. The new name results from an Air Force headquarters directive to standardize terminology across all of the service’s air and space operations centers (AOCs). As part of this, USAF is replacing the terms “Falconer” and “tailored” with “functional” and “geographic.” Functional AOCs, like the 618th AOC, provide “specific capabilities all over the world including air mobility, space operations, global strike, and special operations support,” said Scott officials. Geographical AOCs, such as US Central Command, “support geographic combatant commanders within a defined area of responsibility, while relying on the functional AOCs to provide specialized support,” they said. (Scott report by Capt. Justin Brockhoff)
While the Space Force is still making long-term plans to establish high-fidelity live and virtual test and training ranges in the coming years, officials say they're also working with operators to identify near-term gaps and quickly field capabilities to address them.
