Air Force Specialty Code
The Air Force Specialty Code is an alphanumeric code used by the United States Air Force to identify a specific job. Officer AFSCs consist of four characters and enlisted AFSCs consist of five characters. A letter prefix or suffix may be used with an AFSC when more specific identification of position requirements and individual qualifications is necessary. The AFSC is similar to the Military Occupational Specialty Codes used by the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps or enlisted ratings and USN officer designators and Naval Officer Billet Classifications used by the United States Navy and enlisted ratings and USCG officer specialties used by the United States Coast Guard. The United States Space Force equivalent is known as the Space Force Specialty Code .
Matching Strengths To A Career
SELECT A MAGE CATEGORY TO VIEW THE MINIMUM SCORE REQUIRED FOR A PARTICULAR CAREER.
The Mechanical score is the combination of the following subtests:
Arithmetic Reasoning
2X Verbal Expression
Mechanical Comprehension
The Administrative score is the combination of the following subtests:
Numerical Operations
Verbal Expression
We Are Invisible We Are Everywhere
When wars are waged on a different battlefield, we look to our cyber-skilled Airmen to be both sword and shield. They are on the frontlines of their field defending the nation from the stealthiest attackers. Their expertise is what keeps our information and systems secure from anyone who seeks to shut us down.
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It Was Like A Cartoon
The compound they chose to be in was a really good compound to defend, he said.
The assault force split up, and Ruiz and two of his teammates a Green Beret, and an EOD tech eventually fought their way through a courtyard within the compound. At one point Ruiz got a bad feeling from a hut and aimed his carbine at it seconds before an armed Taliban fighter emerged from within, he toldAir & Space Forces Magazine in 2015.
Ruiz shot the fighter, but shortly afterward his two teammates both went down in front of him, and soon Taliban fighters were shooting at the PJ from both in front and behind. Instead of finding cover, Ruiz remained in the open in order to draw enemy fire away from the wounded Green Beret and EOD tech while doing his best to suppress them single-handedly.
Drawing fire from the enemy and returning fire to prevent the insurgents from maneuvering, he was gradually driven into a prone fighting position by the sheer volume of enemy fire, reads the PJs Air Force Cross citation. His refusal to leave the courtyard prevented enemy fighters from engaging his wounded teammates with direct fire weapons, though enemy grenades impacted within five meters of Sergeant Ruizs position.
The PJs actions that day may strike many people as a superhuman act of courage. But nine years and countless news articles later, Ruizs own memory of events is more complicated.
These are typical tactics, he said. In my mind, Im doing what I have to do, Im working.
Acquisition And Financial Management

- 60 Senior Materiel Leader, Upper Echelon
Senior materiel leaders are in charge of a major system acquisitions program, such as the Air Force Executive Program or the Congressional Selected Acquisition Reporting Program.
- 61 Scientific
Jobs in the scientific field include chemist or physicist.
- 62 Developmental Engineering
The developmental engineering career field covers a wide range of specialties, from aeronautical and computer systems to flight test and mechanical. Officers in this field are responsible for everything from planning to implementing their projects.
- 63 Acquisition
Acquisition officers implement programs from engineering to securing final shipping. They oversee all aspects of the acquisition process to ensure the necessary equipment and supplies get where they need to be anywhere in the world.
- 64 Contracting
The job of officers in the contracting field is to help make sure that command units are well stocked with everything they need. They are responsible for planning, evaluating or awarding contracts for commodities, services and construction
Finance officers organize financial management activities and establish internal control. They help ensure funds are available for the equipment, supplies and services that airmen need.
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Cyber Community Makes Plans For New Afsc
Photo By Master Sgt. Jessica Roles | Leadership within the cyber community discuss the way-ahead for the cyber AFSC as well……read moreread more
Photo By Master Sgt. Jessica Roles | Leadership within the cyber community discuss the way-ahead for the cyber AFSC as well as the newly proposed 1D7 cyber operational AFSC, Nov. 13, 2019, at Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark. The team worked over the course of several days to develop curriculum and to discuss the future of MDTs. see less | View Image Page
The Air Force Isnt Doing Information Technology Right
I retired from active-duty service in the U.S. Air Force two years ago, capping a 28-year career as a communications officer and, later, a cyberspace operations officer. My final assignment was as deputy director of NATOs Cyberspace Operations Centre in Belgium, which I wrote about right here in War on the Rocks. I often find myself reflecting on that experience lately, in a kind of reverse déjà vu. At the time, I was trying to help NATO do cyber right and thought that the alliance could learn a lot from my services approach to cyberspace operations. Now that Im back in the Air Force, albeit out of uniform, Im concerned that in its haste to become the global leader in cyberspace operations, the Department of the Air Force has severely degraded its ability to provide serviceable information technology capabilities for airmen and guardians. This is where NATO had, in my opinion, placed too much emphasis, thereby putting its own fledgling cyberspace operational future at risk. Life can be weird.
I write this to shame nobody, but rather to call attention to what I think weve collectively overlooked.
Cyber Operations Arent IT
Theres no way to fully measure the impact of this until it is too late: the military manpower will be gone and there will be no recourse except to live with the results or give more money to the vendors money that the Air Force already knows it doesnt have and wont get.
IT Is Support and Operations Depend on IT
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Team Chief Cyber Assignments
2 years
Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, United States
Oversees over 20,000 Cyber Officers and Enlisted Airmen and Guardians globally in executing force development and talent management initiatives in support of the National Defense Strategy. Executes assignment actions, advisor to 1-star General Officer on career field health, leadership hiring selection process, and developmental education. Leads 3 assignment teams across the 17X, 3D, 1B, 1D career fields.
Air Force To Reclassify Cyberspace Support Career Fields
Chief Master Sgt. Denzil Hellesen, USAF , 3D0XX career field manager, speaks to other cyber career field leaders during a meeting at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, on August 23. Leaders held a week-long conference to discuss how to transform the services cyberspace career fields to advance Air Force cyber capabilities. Credit: U.S. Air Force photo by John Ingle
As the Air Force strives to become a digital force and embraces Chief Gen. C. Q. Browns vision of accelerating change, the service is streamlining its cyber and communications career fields. Headquarters Air Force leaders, National Guard and Reserve leaders and major command functional managers of the cyberspace support career field met at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, last week to discuss how to develop the adaptable, agile communications and cyber career fields needed to support future Air Force requirements, reported John Ingle from the 82nd Training Wing Public Affairs. At the meeting, the leaders made a key decision to reclassify certain cyber career designations, driving toward an all-in-one cyberspace airman concept, Ingle said.Over the next year or so, the service will move from having multiple Air Force Specialty Codes for cyberspace support to a single AFSC, with so-called shred outs, or specialties within that one cyberspace career field. As a result, each cyberspace airman would have a broader scope of and greater capabilities in cyber, according to the leaders.
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Us Air Force Officer Afsc
Air Force Officer AFSCs follow a similar format as enlisted AFSCs except they are only four digits. They have prefixes and suffixes to show the exact officer job. For example, an officer AFSC of 11B2B is a qualified pilot or copilot of a B-2 Bomber. All pilots have an AFSC of 11XX. 11B2B indicates a bomber aviator. 11B2B indicates that the officer is fully qualified, and the suffix 11B2B identifies the weapons system. In this case, its the B-2 Stealth Bomber.
Director Of Operations 2d Communications Squadron
3 years 1 month
Barksdale AFB, LA
Oversees all operations for the bases communications squadron responsible for operating and maintaining $250 million in critical command and control, communications, and airfield systems supporting the 2d Bomb Wings mission. Additionally, responsible for providing cyber operations support to Air Force Global Strike Command , U.S. Strategic Commands Joint Force Air Component Commander, Headquarters Eighth Air Force, the 307th Bomb Wing and 32 associate units.
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Receive An Enlistment Bonus
If youre ready to be challenged like never before by joining an elite team of Cyber Airmen, you can receive an enlistment bonus. Bonus pay amounts are based on an individual’s highest level of certification and a six-year enlistment contract, giving qualified recruits an opportunity to receive bonuses for these careers.
Heroes Are First To Raise Their Hands

Pilot
THE MOST ELITE WARRIORS ON THE PLANET
Up to $50,000 Enlistment Bonus Available
THE AIR FORCES BOMB SQUAD
Up to $50,000 Bonus Available
SURVIVAL, EVASION, RESISTANCE AND ESCAPE
TRAINING OTHERS HOW TO SURVIVE
Up to $40,000 Enlistment Bonus Available
THE ULTIMATE LINE OF DEFENSEconnect with us
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I Had Absolutely No Excuse
Believe it or not, becoming a pararescueman was not what Ruiz had in mind when he was a sophomore in high school growing up in San Antonio, Texas. At first, he wanted to become an Army Ranger, but a neighborhood friend named David who was going through the pararescue indoctrination course at nearby Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland changed that. When David came home for weekends, he told Ruiz about the physical and mental challenge of becoming one of the best combat medics on the planet.
He told me how difficult the course was and how many people failed and how it was supposed to be one of the most difficult schools in the , Ruiz recalled. That alone if its one of the most difficult schools, thats what I want to try to do.
Ruiz enlisted in the Air Force right after graduating from high school in 1996. Joining pararescue was just as difficult as David described: in fact, Ruiz didnt make it through the initial pararescue indoctrination course the first time.
I just didnt have the determination, he said. I say that because Ive seen 17, 18-year-old kids graduate the course. So I had absolutely no excuse.
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Air Force Plans New Cyber Afsc To Defend Weapons Systems
The computerization of weapon systems in the Air Force brings many advantages but it also means theyre increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks.
To help safeguard the security of these aircraft and other systems, the Air Force is working on a new cyber career field, dubbed 1D7, for airmen in cyber jobs such as mission defense teams.
Mission defense teams are charged with identifying where the cyber vulnerabilities are for each weapon system, and developing and putting into place the safeguards those systems need, the Air Force said in a Tuesday release. They also must establish alert systems to catch when a cyber attack on a weapon system is happening, and then respond and recover from the attack.
Managers from the cyber community met last week at Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas to decide how such a career field might work. During the Nov. 19-20 meetings at the 189th Airlift Wing there, career field and functional area managers hashed out a training plan and expectations of students and instructors. They also improved the mission defense team training plan, and incorporated those developments into the new career field.
In the release, the Air Force said the new training outline they set will have a more relevant curriculum for cyber airmen, particularly those in mission defense teams. The planning committee also talked about how pipeline training will be conducted, and how follow-on training will fit into airmens schedules.
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Finding Your Air Force Job
To join the Air Force as an enlisted member, you must get a decent score on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test.
In fact, the Air Force requires the highest score of any branch of the service for admission.
Jobs in the Air Force are called Air Force Specialty Code . To find what jobs you qualify for, the Air Force breaks down your ASVAB subtest scores into groups known as qualification areas. Those subtests are general science , arithmetic reasoning , word knowledge , paragraph comprehension , mathematics knowledge , electronics Information , auto and shop information , and mechanical comprehension .
High school seniors or graduates must have a minimum 31 overall ASVAB score, and GED holders must have a minimum of 50 overall ASVAB score.
Officers are not required to take the ASVAB test. However, they must take the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test, which is similar to the SAT before admission.