USAF’s Force Management and Development Council has approved an initiative that will transform the way the service grooms its senior enlisted leaders. Among the changes, career field leaders will be able to manage enlisted talent and “identify the right airmen for the right job at the right time,” according to council officials. Within select specialty codes, senior noncommissioned officers will be vectored into critical positions based on their training, education, and experience. Further, staff sergeants will have to attend the NCO Academy before pinning on their next chevron. This is designed to give them leadership skills earlier in their careers. To make that feasible, the Air Force will expand NCOA capacity by 16 classrooms. A task will determine in “the near future” which of the existing NCOA locations will be expanded. (Washington report by Cheryl Medlin) (See also Closing the Gap from the Daily Report archive.)
RTX’s Raytheon unit was able to “significantly” extend the range of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile using mostly software changes in experimental tests last year, expanding the reach and lethality of the standard U.S. dogfighting weapon, company officials said Sept. 15.
