BMt next
Forging the Force the Future Demands
Airbase Training Range Live
From the Drill Pad to the AirfielD
Air Force Basic Military Training is where the journey to being an airminded warrior begins. BMT Next integrates Airpower sooner. For more than a century, airpower has shaped the outcome of conflict. But airpower does not exist on its own. It is defended, operated, generated, and sustained by Airmen.
BMT Next brings air‑mindedness into the earliest moments of training with new air base training ranges and a ground-up curriculum that will forge Airmen for the future.
“Our main purpose has never changed…We fly and fix to fight and win our Nation’s wars. That mission binds us across all specialties, across all generations, and across the globe. From maintainers on the flightline, to operators in the cockpit, to defenders, to logisticians, every Airman plays a critical role in generating the Airpower to protect our Nation.”
The Airbase is the classroom
At the core of BMT Next is a new training environment at Joint Base San Antonio: Air Base Training Ranges designed to bring airpower to life.
These ranges allow trainees to progress from foundational, part‑task training to event‑based challenges that introduce calculated stress and consequence. Every action matters, and every role connects to the mission.
As training intensifies, flights operate as disciplined small teams—defending, operating, generating, and sustaining airpower together. If the airbase is one of the most lethal weapons ever created, Airmen must experience its complexity and responsibility early in their journey.
Here, accountability is learned through action, not explanation.
Proof of Concept in Action
Rather than wait years for a full-scale build, BMT took a faster path: prove the concept now. The result is an operational armament training station on Lackland, anchored by a real F-16 and equipped with instructional videos, mission boards, rockets, missiles, and everything needed to run a student-led exercise from planning to execution.
Students arrive as an element, watch the short videos, read the mission boards, debate their approach, and own their decisions, while the instructor steps back and guides rather than directs. Seven additional stations and two C-130s are slated for completion by November, but the first station is already live, the first flights are already running, and the future of Air Force training already has a starting point.
Student Feedback
“My favorite part was being able to lead my team to complete the mission and load up the f-16.”
“Loading the munitions made me remember why I wanted to enlist in the first place.”
“Assigning the roles and sticking to them with my team as well as the realistic feeling of working with missiles it was definitely one of my favorite PTEs.”
The Airbase in Action
These virtual 3D models showcase the new training environments that make BMT Next possible.
The Airbase Training Range (ATR), which will be located near the Valley Hi gate at Lackland AFB introduces trainees to early, hands‑on air‑minded tasks—entry control, fueling, loading, and airfield operations, long before they reach their first duty station.
The Forward Airbase Training Range, built at the current PACER FORGE site at the Chapman Training Annex, will allow for an Airpower generation centric culminating event for BMT where trainees operate a simulated forward air base and experience airpower at work. It builds on the previous week' foundation with full‑mission scenarios that simulate deployed operations. Here, trainees learn to defend, operate, generate, and sustain airpower as small, disciplined teams.
Together, these environments allow BMT Next to develop the tactical awareness, teamwork, and decision‑making required of tomorrow’s Airmen, long before they reach their technical training.
Applying mission context
Concept Art
