Air Force Basic Training: Everything You Need to Know

Congratulations on beginning your journey to become a United States Airman. You're probably feeling excited, proud, and more than likely a little nervous. Embarking on any new career can be stressful, but this one especially involves taking on more than what most people face throughout civilian life.

It's going to require fortitude and courage to meet these future challenges head-on. The best thing you can have right now is solid information about what comes next - because knowledge is the first step.

The Air Force has published a handy smartphone app to help you prepare. You can download it here.

What Is Air Force Basic Military Training?

Air Force Basic Military Training (BMT) is the entry training that every enlisted Airman in the Air Force receives before going on to specialized training. All Air Force and Space Force recruits attend BMT at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in San Antonio, Texas, operated by the 37th Training Wing. This has been the Air Force's sole basic training location for decades and remains so under BMT 2.0.

The Air Force officially describes BMT as 7.5 weeks, counting the structured training curriculum from Week 1 through graduation. In practice, recruits should expect to be at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland for approximately nine weeks total, including the Week 0 in-processing phase and the graduation week ceremonies. Each week introduces progressively new and more challenging tasks and things to learn.

Every enlisted recruit begins as an E-1. As of 2026, E-1 monthly base pay is approximately $2,407 per month. Pay begins on your first day of active duty - including BMT. After BMT, opportunities for specialty pay, re-enlistment bonuses, and promotions add to your base compensation. The Air Force is currently offering enlistment bonuses of up to $40,000 for critical career fields including maintenance, cyber, and special operations.

Expect Basic Military Training to reflect the realities of the current threat environment. In 2023, Col. Lauren Courchaine, TRW commander, said,

“BMT can’t exist in a vacuum – our job is to build a uniformed force steeped in the Profession of Arms, but our training has to be connected to the operational Air Force. These efforts are a strategic up-front investment to ensure trainees acquire the skills necessary to manage and adapt to stressful environments, which directly relates to readiness and ultimately ensures they are prepared when combat occurs.”

What to Bring to Basic Training

The Air Force will issue much of what you need during BMT, but the Air Force also provides a packing list on the app and the website. Your recruiter should provide you with the list as well, but if you do not get one, you should ask.

The mandatory packing list includes your identification, visa or citizenship applications, social security card, and personal items such as glasses and underwear. It’s also important for you to bring copies of your spouse’s identification as well. Again, your recruiter will be able to assist you in preparing for BMT, so be sure to remain in contact with them.

National Guard and Reserve recruits should bring two copies of their orders and their Common Access Card.

Air Force Basic Training Phases

BMT 2.0 retains the week-by-week structure of the previous curriculum but places significantly greater emphasis on physical readiness, small-unit operations, and air-mindedness - understanding how your role connects to the larger airpower mission. You will be up for PT by 0500, six days a week.

Week 0

In-processing week. You'll attend a briefing with the 737th Training Group and be assigned to your Military Training Instructor.

You'll receive your initial issue of Air Force uniforms, learn how to fall in during drill, get a rundown on BMT's physical requirements, receive vaccinations and a general health checkup, make your first call home, and get your haircut.

Week 1

Week 1 is where Basic Training truly begins. Monday opens with the initial physical fitness assessment under the new BMT 2.0 standards - your MTI now knows where you stand. The week covers the foundational mechanics of Air Force life: reporting and saluting procedures, entry control, rank recognition, individual and flight drill, and dorm preparation to standard.

You'll receive your weapon and begin familiarization, attend briefings on medical and dental appointments, fitness and nutrition, military entitlements, educational benefits including the Montgomery GI Bill and Post-9/11 GI Bill, and meet with the chapel guide.

Human relations, cultural sensitivity, suicide awareness and prevention, and an introduction to classroom procedures round out a week designed to orient you - quickly - to what the Air Force expects and how it operates.

Week 2

Week 2 builds on the foundation of Week 1 by broadening your understanding of the institution you've joined. Classroom sessions cover Air Force history, organization, and career guidance (giving you context for where you fit in the larger force) alongside instruction in the profession of arms, human relations, and professional interpersonal interactions.

Your MTI will conduct the first formal appraisal of your recruit living area, inspect your weapon handling and maintenance, and run an open ranks dress and appearance check.

Team-building exercises led by your flight commander, chapel guide meetings, and Airmen's Time sessions round out the week, keeping the emphasis on integrating you into your training group as a functional, professional unit.

Week 3

Week 3 raises the stakes on multiple fronts. The 3-Week-of-Training PT appraisal is the centerpiece - your first graded fitness assessment under BMT 2.0 standards, and the one that determines whether you continue with your flight or get recycled.

You'll receive your second clothing issue and attend dress and appearance instruction on the service uniform, while classroom sessions cover basic leadership and character, cyber awareness, public relations and media, healthy lifestyle, resilience, trafficking in persons awareness, and your role as a warrior in the Air Force.

Weapons handling and maintenance continue, drill progresses, and extra duty assignments begin - positions like dorm monitor, chow runner, and road guard that teach responsibility and reinforce the team dynamic your MTI has been building since Week 1.

Week 4

Week 4 shifts from physical benchmarks to the responsibilities and ethical framework of Air Force service. Classroom sessions cover a broad range of topics that define what it means to be a professional Airman: SAPR, sexually transmitted diseases, joint ethics, military citizenship, antiterrorism and force protection, environmental awareness, financial readiness, career progression, and Air Force quality of life.

Your recruit living area gets another formal appraisal, haircuts are administered, and drill continues. Flight commander team-building exercises and Airmen's Time sessions reinforce unit cohesion, while briefings on base liberty, base referral agencies, and the real responsibilities of an Airman begin preparing you for life beyond the training environment.

Week 5

Week 5 marks a deliberate turn toward the warrior dimension of Air Force service. Classroom sessions introduce the Code of Conduct, law of armed conflict, joint operations, mental preparation for combat, combat stress recovery, warrior ethos, and principles of first aid - the intellectual and ethical framework for operating in a contested environment.

Combatives training begins, giving you hands-on instruction in techniques adapted for military use, and a weapons progress check evaluates how far you've come since Week 1.

Your recruit living area and drill both get progress checks, the second boot issue arrives, and individual portraits and flight photos are taken. Airmen's Time sessions focus on balance, your role in the mission, and relationships - a recognition that the human dimension of service matters as much as the tactical one.

Week 6

Week 6 brings the final graded PT evaluation - meet the standards here, or you will not graduate with your flight. Classroom sessions cover CBRN defense, Air and Space Expeditionary Force pre-deployment briefing, the Air Force fitness program, airmanship core values, leadership and followership, and professional competence - the kind of judgment-based instruction that moves beyond rules and into the gray areas of real-world service.

Foundational Expeditionary Skills Training (FEST) puts classroom learning into a practical context, introducing the skills you'll need in a deployed environment, and a second open ranks dress and appearance check ensures you're carrying yourself to standard. Computer-based training and Air Force Portal familiarization, a written test, your hometown news release, and a flight commander self-assessment round out a week that is equal parts evaluation and preparation for what PACER FORGE demands next.

Week 7

Week 7 is the culminating field experience of BMT and the most demanding week of training. You'll deploy to a simulated forward operating environment in the western part of Lackland, where everything you've learned comes together under pressure. Combat Arms Training and Maintenance (CATM) puts your marksmanship to the test, combatives applications and pugil stick training move from instruction to execution, and SERE 2-5 video prepares you for survival, evasion, resistance, and escape scenarios you may one day face for real.

The CLAW field exercises - Creating Leaders, Airmen and Warriors - challenge you to operate as a small team under the kind of stress and ambiguity that a real deployment generates, with refresher drills cycling through FEST, first aid, unit command center, and personnel accountability procedures. Zone teardown and equipment turn-in close out the week, and by the time you hand in your gear, the Air Force will have a clear picture of whether you're ready to graduate.

Graduation Week

This is the finish line - and you've earned it. The week opens with final briefings that transition your focus from training to what comes next: orders pickup, tech training school briefing, commander's departure briefing, and town pass and base liberty orientation. Haircuts bring you back to standard for the ceremonies ahead. The emotional centerpiece of the week is the Airman's Run, the formal retreat ceremony, and the presentation of the Airman's Coin - the moment you are recognized, formally and publicly, as a member of the United States Air Force.

The Airman's Parade and graduation ceremony follow, with family present to mark the occasion. Then comes town pass - your first taste of freedom since arrival - before you transfer out to tech training school and the next chapter of your Air Force career.

The following weekend includes events for families. Guests must pass a background check and have a photo ID to enter Lackland. Vehicle insurance and registration are required. All guests enter through the Airman's Gate. Service animals are permitted, but no pets please. Also, leave those firearms securely locked up off base.

Physical Requirements - What's Changed for 2026

The Air Force launched a major overhaul of Basic Military Training - what the Air Force is calling “BMT 2.0” - on October 7, 2025, and the changes are significant for anyone reporting to Lackland in 2026 and beyond. The bottom line up front: arrive in better shape than ever before, because BMT 2.0 is physically harder.

Daily physical training sessions have increased from 60 to 90 minutes - a 50 percent boost in PT time. High-intensity interval training has been added, including box jumps, sprinting, and shuttle runs alongside the traditional running, push-ups, and sit-ups. Small-team operations have also been introduced: training flights have been reduced from 40 to 50 trainees down to groups of 10 to 15, placing greater emphasis on leadership and teamwork under pressure. To help recruits manage the increased physical demands, a 60-minute nightly recovery block has been added with guided recovery by physical fitness trainers.

Drill and ceremony training has been cut roughly in half - from 40 hours to 20 hours - and dorm standards have shifted from "inspection-ready" to "neat and orderly." That time has been reallocated to mission-essential training, including hands-on exposure to live aircraft and map and compass orienteering.

The fitness test itself has also changed. The Air Force replaced the mandatory 1.5-mile run with a choice between a 2-mile run and a 20-meter High Aerobic Multi-shuttle Run (HAMR) for its standard cardio assessment, effective for official scored testing beginning July 1, 2026. While BMT dictates which test recruits take during training, the wider Air Force standard offers this alternative.

At BMT specifically, recruits take the physical fitness test at least three times - in the first, third, and fifth weeks of training. Unlike the previous system, there are no alternate test components at BMT. If you fail a component, you retest on the full test, not just the failed element.

Vaccination Requirements

The vaccination requirements at BMT have been in flux since April 2026 and represent one of the most consequential policy changes affecting recruits in recent memory.

For 80 years - since 1945, with one brief pause in 1949 - the military mandated annual flu vaccines for all service members. In April 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ended that requirement, citing "medical autonomy" and describing the mandate as "overly broad and not rational." The services were permitted to request exceptions, but Hegseth's "effective immediately" implementation went into effect before those exception requests could be processed.

The consequences at Lackland were swift. When the mandate lapsed, approximately 60 percent of previously unvaccinated trainees at Lackland declined the flu shot. Vaccination rates dropped from nearly 100 percent to around 40 percent. Within weeks, a flu outbreak took hold among BMT trainees. By June 23, 2026, at least 222 recruits had fallen ill, four had been hospitalized, and one recruit died on June 16 after experiencing a medical emergency.

The Air Force had submitted its exception request on May 5 - more than six weeks before the outbreak peaked. That request worked its way through multiple Pentagon offices before being approved on June 11. By the time the mandate was restored at Lackland, the outbreak was already spreading.

As of late June 2026, flu vaccines are again required for all military recruits across the Army, Navy, and Air Force for basic training. The exception to Secretary Hegseth's policy has been confirmed by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell. The broader military flu vaccine mandate - for active-duty service members beyond basic training - remains voluntary pending further Pentagon guidance. For recruits shipping to BMT in 2026 and beyond, the flu vaccine is currently required upon arrival. Given the ongoing policy volatility, confirm current requirements with your recruiter close to your ship date.

Family Resources

Contact During BMT and How to Support Your Airman

Families can reach recruits via phone, video chat, email, and messaging. Letters remain the most reliable and meaningful way to stay connected during BMT - every recruit appreciates mail, and hearing from home is a genuine morale boost during a demanding few weeks.

Trainees also have access to the Shoppette on base to purchase comfort items they may need, so care packages aren't necessary. Save the cookies for graduation weekend.

Space Force Guardians at BMT

If you're enlisting in the United States Space Force, your basic training journey begins at the same place as every Air Force recruit: Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

The Space Force has been sending recruits to Lackland since October 2020, initially sharing the Air Force's BMT curriculum with Space Force-specific additions. The service has progressively carved out its own identity within that framework. The first Guardian Military Training Instructors graduated from the MTI course in 2021. The first all-Guardian BMT class graduated in spring 2022. In December 2025, for the first time, graduating Guardians wore their Space Force service dress uniform at their BMT graduation ceremony - a visible symbol of the branch's developing identity.

Guardian BMT runs 7.5 weeks - the same length as Air Force BMT - but includes an additional 35-plus hours of Space Force-specific instruction covering space threats, Space Force structure, military doctrine, and emotional intelligence. Guardian recruits train in their own formations and flights, taught by Guardian MTIs using a Space Force-developed curriculum.

Space Force leadership has signaled ambitions to eventually move Guardian BMT to its own facility at a separate location - Patrick Space Force Base in Florida and installations in Colorado have been mentioned as candidates. As of mid-2026, however, all Guardian basic training still takes place at Lackland. The Space Force recruits a significantly smaller cohort than the Air Force - around 730 to 800 Guardians per year compared to more than 33,000 active-duty Airmen - and its recruits tend to be older and more highly educated, which may ultimately shape a distinct BMT curriculum and timeline.

After BMT, Guardians move to Space Force-specific technical training based on their assigned career field.

Air Force Special Warfare Candidates at BMT

If you're enlisting with the goal of becoming a Pararescueman (PJ), Combat Controller (CCT), Special Reconnaissance operator (SR), or Tactical Air Control Party specialist (TACP), your path through BMT looks similar to every other recruit's - but what comes before and after is entirely different.

Before you ship to Lackland, you'll work with a Special Warfare developer - a former operator who serves as a pre-accession mentor. This developer ensures your Physical Ability and Stamina Test (PAST) numbers are where they need to be before you depart. The typical process from pre-accession to shipping to BMT takes four to six months. You must earn a recommendation from your developer before you go.

At BMT, Special Warfare candidates are evaluated continuously - not just on physical performance, but on a whole-person concept that includes cognitive ability, teamwork, attitude, and what the Air Force calls "airmanship." The MTIs and Special Warfare cadre are watching. Performance during BMT feeds directly into the evaluation that determines where you go next.

After BMT, Special Warfare candidates attend the Special Warfare Prep Course (formerly known as the Battlefield Airman Prep Course) - an eight-week course designed to rebuild elevated physical fitness after BMT and prepare candidates for the assessment and selection pipeline. At the end of the Prep Course, candidates are vectored toward either the TACP Assessment Course or the Guardian Angel/Special Tactics Assessment and Selection Course, based on their performance and career preferences. At that selection phase, the cadre determines whether you proceed to Special Reconnaissance, Combat Control, Pararescue, or are eliminated from training.

The Air Force reported a record 750 Special Warfare recruits in the Delayed Entry Program as of mid-2025 - a sign of strong interest in these career fields. Lt. Gen. Brian Robinson, commander of Air Education and Training Command, echoed this, explaining,

“This remarkable achievement is a testament to the unwavering dedication and professionalism of our recruiting force,” Robinson said. Our recruiters have worked tirelessly to connect with America’s youth and showcase the incredible opportunities the Air Force and Space Force provide."

But interest and completion are very different things. The attrition rates across the Special Warfare pipeline remain high, and the pipeline is deliberately designed to find the few who can handle it. Nothing is given, so arrive at BMT ready.

Summing It All Up

Air Force BMT 2.0 is harder than the program it replaced, and it's designed to be. The Air Force is preparing Airmen for a more demanding operational environment - distributed, expeditionary, and potentially contested by capable adversaries. The fitness demands are higher, the small-team emphasis is new, and the expectation that you arrive in shape is not just advice, it's a requirement.

Whether you're enlisting as an Airman, joining the Space Force as a Guardian, or pursuing one of the Special Warfare career fields, the fundamentals remain the same: prepare before you arrive, know what to expect, and understand that BMT is the beginning of the journey, not the destination.

Good luck, future Airman. The Air Force will be ready for you when you get there.