Moody's 23rd Wing is fully embracing the lead-wing concept through its adoption of an A-staff and is working to apply that concept in accordance with the command and control framework.

As part of the Air Force’s efforts to “Accelerate Change or Lose” the 505th Command and Control Wing, Hurlburt Field, Florida, has come to Moody to train 23rd WG Airmen on how C2 works within the lead wing concept.

“Lead wing is fairly new to everyone and the Joint Force,” said Maj. Aaron Gordon, 23rd WG director of operations. “We’ve never had forces organized in this way before, so we really didn't have an established doctrine for how the wing's staff would interface with the commander of Air Force forces, and this training gave us the link.”

The two-day training consisted of academic presentations, instruction from professionals from the 505th CCW and table top scenarios that familiarized the A-staff with situations they might encounter during their deployment, entities they don’t normally work with, and the need to develop relationships with their counterparts.

The 505th CCW has developed specialized C2 training to help wings adapt to the organizational changes being implemented Air Force wide.

“We’re calling it Lead Wing C2 training, which is unique to lead wings. It’s a collection of various operations down to the tactical level,” said Lt. Col. John Staudt, 505th CCW chief of the commander’s action group. “The training takes a normal wing staff, wing command post, or wing operations center and trains them on how their job differs when they move forward and they’re in a deployed environment supporting lead-wing operations.”

The lead-wing concept combined with increased focus on command and control is geared toward addressing rapidly changing and increasingly challenging operating environments and preparing warfighting force to be able to handle whatever challenges in a contested environment.

“I think that's very important that we start asking the questions now rather than later, because we are informing the 15th Air Force and ACC to model what wing staff is going to be organized under,” Gordon said. “You know, eventually this all leads to a complete change to the way wing staffs are organized across the entire Air Force. This command and control training helped us to ask more appropriate questions to set a more valid precedent for the rest of the Air Force.”

Moving forward, the 505th CCW will be continuing to support Moody, along with other ACC lead wings, in their growth into this new vision and the execution of joint warfighting concepts according to Staudt.

“That's honestly the goal — to establish a working relationship with each of the lead wings, Moody being the fourth lead wing that we’ve trained, the first lead wing that has an A-staff of their own, and the first lead wing that has different Mission Design Series (military aircraft designations),” Staudt said. “We hope this training sets you guys up for success.”