UNITED STATES AIR FORCE WEAPONS SCHOOL

Teaches graduate-level instructor courses that provide the world’s most advanced training in weapons and tactics employment to officers of the combat air forces and mobility air forces.

Composed of 18 squadrons, every six months the school produces approximately 80 graduates who are expert instructors on weapons, weapons systems, and air and space integration. The school also produces the Weapons Review magazine, the CAF’s premier professional tactics publication.

Students are fully qualified instructors, chosen by a central selection board and among the best of their peers. During the course they receive an average of 400 hours of graduate-level academics and participate in demanding combat training missions. The climax of the course is the mission employment phase, a two-week staged battle over the Nevada Test and Training Range. The students demonstrate their ability to manage a battle and effectively integrate multiple weapons systems. Upon graduation, the new weapons officers return to the field to serve as unit weapons and tactics officers, providing advanced instruction and technical advice to their commanders, operations officers and personnel.

The eleven USAFWS squadrons based at Nellis are the 8 WPS (Command and Control Operations), 16 WPS (F-16), 17 WPS (F-15E), 19 WPS (Intelligence), 26 WPS (MQ-1/MQ-9), 34 WPS (HH-60), 57 WPSS (Operational Support), 66 WPS (A-10), 315 WPS (ICBM), 328 WPS (Space), and 433 WPS (F-15C/F-22). The seven geographically separated units include the 14 WPS at Hurlburt Field, Fla. (AC-130/MC-130/U-28); 29 WPS at Little Rock AFB, Ark. (C-130); 57 WPS at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. (C-17); 77 WPS at Dyess AFB, Texas (B-1); 325 WPS at Whiteman AFB, Mo. (B-2); 340 WPS at Barksdale AFB, La. (B-52); and the 509 WPS at Fairchild AFB, Wash. (KC-135).