Current State of the Air Force Foreign Area Officer (FAO)
Program
By Lt Col Mike Nolta (USAF)
US Air Force senior leadership recognizes the critical need to develop officers with foreign language and
regional political-military (Pol-Mil) skills. The challenge is to balance officer career development with current and
future Foreign Area Officer (FAO) requirements in a resource-constrained environment.
The Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force for International Affairs (SAF/IA) established the Air Force FAO
Program within the International Airmen Division, Policy Directorate (SAF/IAPA). The AF FAO program stood up
in 1997 to track officers with foreign language and regional skills, and to provide training opportunities that maintain
and improve those skills. FAO is a career-broadening specialty; positions requiring this specialized skill set are
identified with the 16FXX Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC) and are filled by officers from all career specialties.
The FAO program targets officers with a basic level of existing language/regional skills and further develops those
skills to meet AF needs.
Currently, the FAO program remains a secondary/career-broadening AFSC. The Air Force also maintains an
AFSC for Political/Military Officer (16P), but 16Ps are considered "general" Pol-Mil officers. What differentiates
the 16P from the 16F is the FAO's foreign language capability and knowledge of Pol-Mil issues specific to their
region of expertise. Officers who possess the 16F AFSC receive an AFSC suffix that identifies their region of
expertise. Those regions include:
16FXA - Air Attaché (any geographic region)
16FXB - Central Asia / East Europe / Russia
16FXC - Latin America
16FXD - East Asia / China
16FXE - Southeast Asia
16FXF - Middle East / North Africa
16FXG - Sub-Saharan Africa
16FXH - Western Europe
SAF/IAPA currently tracks over 1500 officers with FAO skills. Generally, officers obtain their FAO skills
prior to commissioning or outside their current duties. Additionally, officers must identify themselves to SAF/IAPA
and apply for the FAO AFSC. Roughly 35% of Air Force FAOs have language skills at the professionally "fluent"
level, defined as a Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT) score of Reading-3 & Listening-3. Air Force FAO
program manages several language and regional studies training programs focused on helping Air Force officers
develop and maintain those capabilities.
The capstone Air Force FAO language program is the Language and Area Studies Immersion (LASI), a one-
month intensive in-country immersion. LASIs are offered in 40 languages in 39 locations; 254 officers completed a
LASI in 2003, and over 1500 officers have completed a LASI since 1997. Officers are required to complete the
DLPT prior to and immediately after completion of the LASI; DLPT scores improved for 99% of Air Force
officers trained. SAF/IAPA also sponsors one-on-one language tutoring for FAOs with at least a basic knowledge of
a foreign language, and recently contracted for on-line language training. Both language programs provide beginner
and intermediate instruction in FAO targeted languages. Although most of the training opportunities sponsored by
SAF/IAPA are targeted at FAOs, the LASI and the online language courses are available to all AF officers.
Language is half the equation for developing a FAO, and DLPT scores offer an objective measure for this
capability. The capability to deal with Pol-Mil issues specific to the region is not as measurable as language skills,
but regional Pol-Mil skills are just as important. SAF/IAPA sponsors Air Force officer participation in regional
studies seminars offered through the State Department's Foreign Service Institute, Air Force Special Operations
School, and DoD Strategic Studies Centers. In 2003, 84 officers completed SAF/IA sponsored regional seminars;
over 300 have completed these programs since 1998. SAF/IAPA also sponsors or advertises a variety of master's
degree, research, and related programs.
Multiple on-going FAO program initiatives exist, including the creation of a senior-level Executive Steering
Group to oversee Air Force foreign language issues sponsored by SAF/IA and SAF/XO. SAF/IAPA also
encouraged increased foreign language emphasis early in an officer's career by establishing extended LASI
opportunities (2-3 months) for graduating US Air Force Academy and Air Force ROTC cadets before starting
primary career training. SAF/IAPA has expanded ties with the Air Force Personnel Center (AFPC) in order to
ensure FAO positions are filled with well-qualified FAOs, and assists the Aerospace Expeditionary Force (AEF)
Center with their FAO contingency TDY requirements.
Despite these efforts, there are several key challenges to further developing a FAO corps that meets Air Force
requirements. AF officers often receive initial language training immediately prior to assignments that require that
language. The Air Force must shift from "just-in-time" language training to early career/pre-accession training with
continued development throughout an officer's career. FAOs must be deliberately developed: it takes
several years of intensive training and several assignments to develop a well qualified FAO and these skills are
perishable if not maintained through training/experience.
Finding the best-qualified officer to fill FAO positions (including Air Attaché positions) remains a
challenge. The FAO program remains a secondary/career broadening assignment and only senior AF leader
involvement and support will focus attention on utilization of their critical skills while ensuring FAOs remain
competitive for promotion. Additionally, the Air Force must better align FAO skill sets to current and future
requirements. Currently, 41% of our Air Force FAOs are European experts while only 5% are Middle Eastern
experts. This will require identification of new and revalidation of current Air Force requirements.
For more information on the Air Force FAO program, visit the Air Force FAO web site at
https://fao.hq.af.mil.
2004, Foreign Area Officer Association
Herndon, Virginia
Maintained
by LTC Steve
Gotowicki.
http://www.faoa.org