LeMay Center publishes special operations revision Published June 8, 2010 By Capt. Jennifer Lovett LeMay Center MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- The Air Force Chief of Staff last month signed the revision to Air Force Doctrine Document 2-7, Special Operations, making it the most current doctrine publication in the Air Force library. "It's an interim change to our operational-level doctrine," said Lt. Col. Fred McNeil, from the LeMay Center for Doctrine Development and Education, the Air Force's unit charged with researching, developing and maintaining Air Force doctrine. "That means we updated the publication to reflect our most current best practices in Special Operations." This change includes updating U.S. Special Operations Command core tasks. "We added counterinsurgency and security forces assistance as core tasks to the document," said Michael Dietvorst, the LeMay Center action officer assigned to the effort. "As far as Air Force core missions, we renamed and added two core missions as well." The Air Force core mission Combat Aviation Advisor was changed to Aviation Foreign Internal Defense and the other core mission changed was Air-to-Surface Interface, renamed Battlefield Air Operations. "Driving these core mission name changes are real world operations and standards in the field," said Mr. Dietvorst. "This publication was five years old, and in that time period, we've learned that the way the Air Force does business has changed. It's important to reflect these changes in our doctrine." Other updates to the doctrine include cultural, regional and linguistic context statements and wording to reflect policy updates from U.S. Special Operations Command and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instructions. The publication was revised based on recommendations from the Air Force Doctrine Working Group, a body that meets twice a year to validate proposals for the development or revision of doctrine documents. "It's important to get it right so that it is available to the warfighter in the field," said Mr. Dietvorst. "It must be relevant to today's fight and provide that basis or foundation for reference. Doctrine gives us that, and I'm happy that this document is out on the street." The new Special Operations doctrine document can be found on the LeMay Center website through the Air Force Portal.