Air Combat Command has launched a sweeping end-to-end review of its training activities to better align them with current warfighting priorities, Gen. William Fraser, Air Combat Command boss, said Feb. 19 at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando. “I want to make sure that we are training the way that we are going to be fighting,” he told reporters after his address, expanding on comments made in December. He said the review will assess which training activities require a higher degree of proficiency for today’s fight and where “measured risk” could be taken to reduce training demands—de-emphasizing some secondary training—now placed on frequently deploying units. And, ACC wants to rethink the best mix of actual flight training vs. simulator and virtual training, making such non-flying activities count toward proficiency requirements. Fraser noted, too, that more virtual training would help reduce the strain on legacy airframes.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.