The Community College of the Air Force will launch a new degree next year that will be open to thousands of enlisted airmen who don’t qualify for current programs.
The Associate of Applied Science in Military Technology and Applied Sciences Management degree will be a more flexible option for airmen who don’t have enough formal skills training to meet the requirements for current degree programs, Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama announced in a release Wednesday.
The new degree, when it arrives in 2021, will be open to about 12,000 airmen in 16 different career fields. And it will also be open to enlisted personnel from other branches of the military who are taking part in Community College of the Air Force-affiliated education and training programs.
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Students will be able to pursue a concentration in topics that are important to the Air Force, such as space operations, cybersecurity, and ethical leadership, the release said.
It will differ in several ways from the community college’s other degrees, Air University said. Students must take 39 semester hours of leadership or leadership-related courses and military science and technology courses, instead of the technical core and elective courses other degrees require.
It will have an oral communication requirement of three semester hours, instead of the second written communication requirement other degrees require.
The physical education requirement will be eliminated, cutting the number of semester hours required to complete the degree from 64 to 60. And students will be able to take open elective courses for six semester hours.
Other degrees, that are already established, were also tweaked beginning April 1, Air University said. The school reduced the technical core requirement from 12 to nine semester hours. It stopped awarding apprentice-level specialty internship credit and special duty internship credit. And it replaced specialty internship credit with upgrade training credit.
The Air Force specialty codes that will be able to pursue the new degree are:
* 1C5X1 Command and control battle management ops
* 1N7X1 Human intelligence specialist
* 2A5X1A Airlift/special mission aircraft
* 3D0X1 Knowledge operations management
* 3E851 Explosive ordnance disposal
* 3F4X1 Equal opportunity
* 3N0X2 Broadcast journalist
* 3N0X5 Photojournalist
* 3N1X1 Regional band
* 3N2X1 Premier band
* 8A200 Enlisted aide
* 8C000 Amn and Family Readiness Non-commissioned Officer
* 8B100 Military Training Leader
* 8F000 First Sergeant
* 8P100 Defense Attaché
* 9L000 Interpreter and Translator
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
