MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- As the U.S. Air Force Center for Strategic Deterrence Studies at Air University here prepares to mark 20 years of service this September, the center continues to offer deterrence education to thousands of Airmen across the Air Force and Department of Defense. Airmen are now improving their understanding of nuclear and strategic deterrence through distance learning, as well.
The center is reaching Airmen who have not received formal nuclear professional continuing education by offering its Strategic Deterrence Basic Course, or SDBC, through online video conferencing.
The course is a collaboration with Air Force Global Strike Command that started in 2014 and arose from junior Airmen’s desire to learn about strategic deterrence and the Air Force nuclear enterprise within the first four years of assignment, said Al Mauroni, director of the Center for Strategic Deterrence Studies.
“The course ensures students have a basic understanding of what deterrence and assurance mean and that they recognize the uniqueness and effects of nuclear weapons,” said Mauroni. “Students also gain an understanding of the need for, evolution of, and strengths and limitations of the strategic nuclear triad.”
Through SDBC, students also learn the history of then-Strategic Air Command’s forming, about the founding of Air Force Global Strike Command, how the Department of Defense collaborates with the Department of Energy, and how Airmen can ensure safe, secure, and reliable nuclear deterrence operations, he said.
Through the instruction, CSDS is not only providing much-needed nuclear deterrence education, but also supporting national policy, including the National Defense Strategy and National Security Strategy.
“Both strategies emphasize the importance of sustaining the nuclear force structure and modernizing the nuclear force,” Mauroni said. “Educating the people who make up this nuclear force is absolutely key in meeting the strategies’ objectives.”
At Air University, students take elective courses on arms control, strategic deterrence, and using airpower to counter weapons of mass destruction, courses taught by the center’s deterrence professionals.
As SDBC is offered through distance learning, students who may not be able to visit Air University still gain access to valuable learning. To date, about a thousand Airmen are taking the course every year.
In addition to the SDBC, Airmen anywhere in the world can also use the resources available at the center’s website to support their continuing education and research.
“Providing a two-day distance learning course actively facilitated by instructors offers both a much larger pipeline by which to educate broadly across the command, as well as a live, interactive discussion with not only the instructor but also with other students on nuclear deterrence,” Mauroni said.
Student feedback indicates the SDBC is helping advance understanding of the DoD strategic deterrence mission.
“Post-assessment tests of the students illustrate the significant increase of their understanding about nuclear and non-nuclear deterrence once they have completed the course,” Mauroni said.
The Center for Strategic Deterrence Studies was founded in 1998 as the U.S. Air Force Counterproliferation Center. In February 2014, the center’s name was changed to the Center for Unconventional Weapons Studies. The name change reflected its broad coverage of unconventional weapons issues, both offensive and defensive, across the six joint operating concepts: deterrence operations, cooperative security, major combat operations, irregular warfare, stability operations, and homeland security.
Recently, the center was renamed the Center for Strategic Deterrence Studies to reflect the importance of maintaining a credible and robust strategic deterrence as one of the Air Force’s enduring contributions to national defense.