Air Force Special Tactics

With a Combat Controller as point man, a stack of Air Force Special Tactics airmen stack up and prepare to enter and clear a structure during a training mission at Melrose AFB, New Mexico.

Special Tactics are USAF's special operations forces (SOF) that deploy on the ground, either as special tactics teams or integrated into other SOF units such as U.S. Army Special Forces ODAs.

USAF Special Tactics operators include Combat Controllers (CCTs), who provide combat air control and austere airfield surveys, Pararescuemen (PJs), who are provide combat medical care, TACP JTACs, who call in air strikes, and Special Operations Weather Teams (SOWT) who carry out meteorological reconnaissance in support of special operations.

USAF Special Tactics Teams train in a range of SOF techniques, including small unit tactics, CQB, SCUBA and amphibious infiltration, military free fall parachuting, and escape and evasion.