EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- In an era defined by rapid technological advancement and near-peer competition, the U.S. Air and Space Forces face an increasingly complex battlespace. Victory is no longer determined by singular platforms, but by a web of interconnected, multi-domain systems that must be developed, tested, and fielded at the speed of relevance. Recognizing this paradigm shift, the Air Force Test Pilot School has undertaken one of the most significant curriculum transformations in its history, centered on the vital pillar of test leadership.
The school's modernized mission is to create "Testers, Leaders, Thinkers, and Innovators" in the mold of trailblazers like Gen. Jimmy Doolittle—individuals who possess not only unparalleled technical acumen but also the strategic vision and leadership prowess to navigate the intricate landscape of modern defense acquisition and capability development.
“Warfighting capabilities are becoming increasingly complex and integrated, with many programs and stakeholders that must work together across domains. This reality is the driving force behind the school's focus on developing graduates who can lead integrated, high-stakes programs from their first assignment to the highest echelons of the Department of Defense,” said Col. James Valpiani, former commandant, Air Force Test Pilot School.
The Mandate for a New Kind of Leader
For decades, the school has been the gold standard for producing the world's finest flight test professionals. Graduates have always been technical experts; however, the modern security environment demands more. A test program for a next-generation capability involves a dense ecosystem of stakeholders including program offices, operational users, testers, contractors, researchers, and many more. A purely technical solution can fail without a leader who can build coalitions, negotiate through conflict, and drive innovation across organizational boundaries.
The new test leadership curriculum is designed to equip students with these critical "soft skills" that have become hard requirements for success. The curriculum is built on four core courses designed to systematically build a graduate's capacity to lead.
Building a Foundational Strategic Context
The journey begins with an intensive first-week immersion focused on test context. Before diving into the technical intricacies of flight and space test, students are briefed by senior leaders from combatant commands like U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and Space Command, intelligence agencies, and Weapons School instructors. This " overview immediately frames their year-long training not as an academic exercise, but as a direct contribution to national security. It helps students understand the strategic, warfighting, technological and acquisition contexts that shape their systems under test, ensuring they have the perspective necessary to build adaptive test programs.
The Art of Negotiation, Persuasion, and Communication
Perhaps the most significant addition is a four-day course on negotiation and persuasion developed and taught by experts from the nation’s leading business schools. The course moves beyond theory by using realistic case studies and role-playing scenarios drawn from real-world challenges graduates have faced such as:
- The Autonomous Safety Board: Students navigate a high-stakes negotiation between an operations group pushing to test a high-risk autonomous aircraft and a safety office concerned about triggering a full Safety Investigation Board (SIB) for a potential aircraft loss, a move that could significantly delay the program. The solution requires not only technical insight, but effective persuasion to redefine risk and testing paradigms for uncrewed systems.
- The Prototype Compliance Conflict: Students must resolve an adversarial relationship between a flight test squadron flying unique, bespoke prototype systems and a quality assurance office holding them to rigid, production-level standards. The case explores how to de-escalate conflict and reframe the problem to achieve a mission-focused outcome, preventing testing delays.
These scenarios force students out of their comfort zones, teaching them to build coalitions, manage conflict, and find mutually beneficial outcomes that accelerate capabilities to the warfighter.
Fostering an Innovation Mindset
A week focused on innovation introduces students to the principles that drive today's most agile tech companies. Using frameworks like lean startup, human-centered design, and the competing values framework, the course teaches students a systematic approach to problem-solving and innovation. Students learn to challenge assumptions, conduct discovery-based research, and develop innovative solutions to real-world problems solicited from across the test enterprise. This course equips students to identify opportunities and novel solutions to accelerate tests and improve capability from within the defense ecosystem.
Bridging the Gap: Partnering with Stanford on AI & Autonomy
To ensure graduates are prepared for future capabilities enabled by artificial intelligence, the curriculum goes beyond the confines of Edwards AFB. Through a partnership with the Stanford AI Accelerator, TPS students embark on a two-week immersive course known as Test of AI & Emerging Technologies.
The objective is to build foundational skills in the design, test, and control of autonomous and AI-enabled systems. The first week is a hands-on academic deep dive covering robotic system architecture, machine learning, computer vision, and AI safety. The second week takes students out of the classroom and into the heart of Silicon Valley's defense innovation ecosystem. Students visit industry-leading companies like NVIDIA, Skydio, Wisk, and Lockheed Martin, engaging directly with the engineers and venture capitalists developing the next generation of autonomous solutions. This unique immersion exposes students to the real-world challenges associated with testing data-driven technologies, bridging the gap between military requirements and commercial innovation.
This summer, the Air Force Test Pilot School will also expand its partnership with the MIT AI Accelerator to establish a similar course, enabling classes beginning in the summer to learn similar content in the Boston tech ecosystem.
Learning from the Real World
The final pillar, case study seminars, provides recent examples of developmental flight tests. Approximately once a month, students dissect major acquisition programs like the F-35, B-21, orbital warfare and Next Generation Air Dominance family of systems. These deep dives provide an unvarnished look at the leadership challenges, stakeholder dynamics, and programmatic risks inherent in multi-billion-dollar defense programs.
The purpose is to move beyond sanitized textbook examples and expose students to the authentic challenges they will face after graduation. Each case study is a multi-faceted analysis, requiring students to examine the program through the competing lenses of its key stakeholders: the program office, the operational warfighter, the developmental and operational testers, and the industry contractors.
These are not simple history lessons. The curriculum requires students to actively:
- Analyze Context: Evaluate how technological advancements, budget constraints, and shifting strategic requirements impacted programmatic decisions and outcomes.
- Evaluate Risk: Scrutinize the programmatic risk management approaches used and discuss the cascading implications of critical risk-based decisions on a program's cost, schedule, and performance.
- Apply Lessons Learned: The end goal is for students to extract key lessons from these case studies and apply them to develop and defend their own recommendations for improving test and acquisition programs.
This process allows them to identify opportunities for innovation, propose new risk mitigation strategies, and find ways to optimize resources—all before they are put in a position where their decisions have real-world consequences.
The impact of the Air Force Test Pilot School extends far beyond the flight line at Edwards. Its graduates go on to lead across the capability development cycle and at every level of the Department of Defense. This revamped curriculum, with its intentional focus on test leadership, is producing a new generation of graduates comparable to a 21st century Doolittle.