Air Force to phase out 13O career field, strengthen all Airmen joint capabilities

  • Published
  • Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

The Department of the Air Force announced Feb. 17, the Multi-Domain Warfare Officer (13O) career field will be phased out while emphasizing that multi-domain capabilities will become fundamental across the Air Force.

This phase out impacts 136 currently-assigned Total Force Airmen in the active component, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve.

“We must be prepared to face future conflicts with our joint and combined partners, and the knowledge Multi-Domain Warfare Officers bring to the fight is too critical to confine to a single career field,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr. “To continue outpacing near-peer adversaries, we must reinforce all Air Force members’ multi-domain expertise.”

The Air Force will continue to evolve its professional education and force structure to ensure all Airmen can apply operational concepts and contribute to Joint All-Domain Operations, versus limiting it to one core AFSC.

The transition will begin after eligible officers meet the LAF-X Colonel central selection board March 29 - April 14, 2022. Commanders will guide Multi-Domain Warfare Officers through the reassignment process. Officers trained in multi-domain warfare gained valuable experience in all-domain and joint planning capabilities which will be leveraged at all levels of training and professional military education to strengthen enterprise-wide capabilities.

“We want to utilize the depth of knowledge and experience that our Multi-Domain Warfare Officers bring to the fight and to the maximum extent possible need their help to train and educate Airmen to fight and win against a peer threat in all domains,” said Maj. Gen. Albert G. Miller, director of Training and Readiness, Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations at Headquarters U.S. Air Force.

Air Education and Training Command, the lead for Professional Military Education, plans to implement principles of the current Multi-Domain Warfare Initial Skills Training into Air Force-wide developmental education. This will increase the operational knowledge and expertise required to produce joint-capable and credible Airmen.

The Multi-Domain Warfare Officer (13O) career field was established June 25, 2018, as a result of the Multi-Domain Command and Control Implementation Plan to train operational-level C2 personnel specialized in executing command and control of multi-domain operations.