The first class of the Air Force's Officer Training School in-processes at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., Oct. 10, 2023. The new OTS program challenges new officers with five learning modules tied to leadership, mission command, warfighting, communication and professionalism. (Kip Turner/U.S. Air Force)

The Air Force is adding many more classroom slots to its Officer Training School and redesigning the curriculum to improve and broaden learning, service officials said.

Starting this month, the new OTS Victory program is planning for 20 graduating classes annually, each with no more than 175 students. Previously, the school graduated five classes per year, with up to 550 students.

Civilians and enlisted airmen should have a much shorter wait to join the officer corps under the new model. Five classes are planned to be in varying phases of training at any given point during the year, school leaders say.

The changes enable them to add more capacity quickly for contingencies, wartime mobilization or unforeseen demands, OTS commandant Col. Keolani Bailey told Stars and Stripes on Monday.

“We have the structural agility and organizational effectiveness to respond to production demands during peace or war,” Bailey said. “Whether we need to increase or decrease production, we won’t compromise the quality of training.”

The inaugural OTS Victory cohort began training at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., last week. The students still receive instruction on military bearing and discipline, undergo basic marching drills on the parade grounds and traverse the school’s obstacle course.

Tried and true military training, however, is combined with new methods that address emotional, intellectual and practical learning, Bailey said.

New Officer Training School students listen to instructions during processing at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., Oct. 10, 2023. Under the new model, OTS will accelerate officer development, service officials say. (Kip Turner/U.S. Air Force)

Classroom and hands-on instruction at the $78 million OTS complex aims to prepare the candidates for the service’s newest operating concepts as well as challenges that include artificial intelligence and cyber threats.

Students also will spend more time on joint planning and practicing their nascent command skills during wargaming and field exercises. They’ll go on a mock deployment to the school’s 200-acre expeditionary site and train on two assault courses.

The changes follow a 10-week assessment by school staff after OTS faced historically low instructor manning and resource constraints, Bailey said.

As the Air Force commits to hosting more classes each year, instructor workloads are expected to balance out, the service said in a statement last week.

Instead of following the entire 60-day curriculum, instructors now focus on two-week classroom blocks for which they are the subject matter experts.

“OTS-V is essentially the same number of days, same number of instructors, but because of how the course is structured, it becomes less concentrated in a far better manner to produce a better graduate and take care of our faculty and staff at the same time,” Col. Derrick Iwanenko, the school’s deputy commandant, wrote in a statement.

With fewer students per class and an improved student-teacher ratio, instructors now enjoy a 10-week break from teaching each year. That leaves more time for professional development, class administration and time off with family and friends, school administrators said.

“This will allow instructors to reduce bureaucracy and concentrate on their primary mission,” Bailey said in a statement last week.

The school hails the changes as among the most significant updates since the launch in its current form in 1993.

OTS is the only institution that prepares airmen and civilians with a college degree for leadership roles on active, reserve or guard duty in just over two months. Last year, 2,200 officers graduated from the school.

OTS expects to train about 3,000 new officers this year, Bailey said.

The service’s two other officer training programs, the U.S. Air Force Academy and Air Force ROTC, begin training while students complete their undergraduate degrees.