Air Force Specialty Code

The Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC) is an alphanumeric code used by the United States Air Force to identify an Air Force Specialty (AFS). Officer AFSCs consist of four characters and enlisted AFSCs consist of five characters. A letter prefix or suffix may be used with an AFSC when more specific identification of position requirements and individual qualifications is necessary. The AFSC is similar to the Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) used by the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps or enlisted ratings and USN officer designators and USCG officer specialities used by the United States Navy and the United States Coast Guard.

History

After the Air Force separated from the Army in 1947, it retained the Army's system of MOS occupation codes, modifying them in 1954. These were 5-digit codes; for example a maintenance data systems specialist was 39150 and a weather technician was 25170. In October 1993, the Air Force implemented a new system of AFSCs, aligning occupations with the forcewide restructuring that was implemented under Merrill McPeak.^[1] These reduced officer AFSCs from 216 to 123 and enlisted AFSCs from 203 to 176.

Enlisted AFSCs

The enlisted AFSC consists of five alphanumeric characters:

Career group (Numerical)
1. Operations
2. Logistics
3. Support
4. Medical
5. Professional
6. Acquisition
7. Special Investigations
8. Special Duty Identifiers, typically used for Airmen chosen for specialized jobs
9. Reporting Identifiers, typically used for Airmen in transitive status: trainees, awaiting retraining, prisoner, etc.
Career field (Alpha, different for each)
Career field subdivision (Numerical, different for each)
Skill level
- 1 – Helper (recruits or retrainees in technical school)
- 3 – Apprentice (technical school graduates applying and expanding their job skills)
- 5 – Journeyman (experienced Airmen functioning as front-line technicians and initial trainers)
- 7 – Craftsman (Airmen with many years of experience in the specialty, responsible for supervision and training)
- 9 – Superintendent (Airmen in the grade of Senior Master Sergeant and above, with at least 14 years of experience, responsible for broad supervision)
- 0 – Chief Enlisted Manager (CEM) (Airmen in the grade of Chief Master Sergeant responsible for policy and direction on a broad scale, from the individual squadron to HQ USAF levels)
Specific AFSC (Numeric, specialty within career field subdivision)

For example, in the AFSC 1N371:

The career group is 1 (Operations)
The career field is N (Intelligence)
The career field subdivision is 3 (Cryptologic Linguist)
The skill level is 7 (Craftsman)
The specific AFSC is 1 (Crypto-Linguist Specializing in a Germanic Language)

For some specialties, an alpha prefix is used to denote a special ability, skill, qualification or system designator not restricted to a single AFSC (such as "X" for an aircrew position). Additionally, an alpha suffix (a “shredout”) denotes positions associated with particular equipment or functions within a single specialty (an Afrikaans specialist in the Germanic linguist field would have an "E" shredout). Using the above example, the AFSC X1N371E would refer to a Germanic Cryptologic Linguist who is aircrew qualified and specializes in Afrikaans.

Here is an extended listing of AFSC groups. Most categories have numerous actual AFSCs in them.

Operations

1A - Aircrew Operations
- 1A0X1 - In-Flight Refueling
- 1A1X1 - Flight Engineer
- 1A2X1 - Aircraft Loadmaster
- 1A3X1 - Airborne Mission Systems
- 1A4X1 - Airborne Battle Management Systems
- 1A6X1 - Flight Attendant
- 1A8X1 - Airborne Cryptologic Language Analyst
- 1A8X2 - Airborne Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Operator
- 1A9X1 - Special Missions Aviation
1B - Cyberspace Defense
- 1B4X1 - Cyberspace Defense
1C - Command and Control Systems Operations
- 1C0X2 - Aviation Resource Management
- 1C1X1 - Air Traffic Control]]
  [[File:United States Air Force Intelligence Badge.svg|right|100px
- 1N0X1 - Operations Intelligence
- 1N1X1 - Geospatial Intelligence
- 1N2X1 - Signals Intelligence Analysis
- 1N3X1 - Cryptologic Language Analyst
- 1N4X1 - Network Intelligence Analysis
1P - Aircrew Flight Equipment
- 1P0X1 - Aircrew Flight Equipment
1S - Safety
- 1S0X1 - 1S - Safety
1T - Aircrew Protection
- 1T0X1 - Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE)
- 1T2X1 - Pararescue

1U - Unmanned Aerospace System (UAS) Operations
- 1U0X1 - Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) Sensor Operator
1W - Weather
- 1W0X1 - Weather
- 1W0X2 - Special Operations Weather

Maintenance/Logistics

2A - Aerospace Maintenance
- 2A0X1 - Avionics Test Station and Components
- 2A2X1 - Special Operations Forces/Personnel Recover (SOF/PR) Integrated Communication/Navigation/Mission Systems
- 2A3X2 - Integrated Avionics Systems (Attack/Special)
- 2A3X3 - Tactical Aircraft Maintenance
- 2A3x4 - Aircraft Avionics (A-10, U2, F-15, F-16, and CV22)
- 2A5X1 - Aerospace Maintenance
- 2A5X2 - Helicopter/Tiltrotor Maintenance
- 2A5X4 - Refuel and Bomber Aircraft Maintenance
- 2A6X1 - Aerospace Propulsion
- 2A6X2 - Aerospace Ground Equipment (AGE)
- 2A6X3 - Aircrew Egress Systems
- 2A6X4 - Aircraft Fuel Systems
- 2A6X5 - Aircraft Hydraulic Systems
- 2A6X6 - Aircraft Electrical and Environmental Systems
- 2A7X1 - Aircraft Metals Technology
- 2A7X2 - Nondestructive Inspection (NDI)
- 2A7X3 - Aircraft Structural Maintenance
- 2A7X5 - Low Observable Aircraft Structural Maintenance
- 2A8X1 - Mobility Air Forces Integrated Communication/Navigation/Mission Systems
- 2A9X1 - Bomber/Special Integrated Communication/Navigation/Mission Systems
Fuels
- 2F - Fuels
Logistics Plans
- 2G - Logistics Plans
Missile Maintenance
- 2M0X1 - Missile and Space Systems Electronics Maintenance
- 2M0X2 - Missile and Space Systems Maintenance
- 2M0X3 - Missile and Space Facilities
Precision Measurement
- 2P - Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory
Maintenance Management
- 2R0X1 - Maintenance Management Analysis
- 2R1X1 - Maintenance Management Production
Materiel Management
- 2S - Materiel Management
Transportation & Vehicle Management
- 2T0X1 - Traffic Management
- 2T1X1 - Vehicle Operations
- 2T2X1 - Air Transportation
Vehicle Management
- 2T3X1 - Vehicle and Vehicular Equipment Maintenance
- 2T3X2 - Special Vehicle Maintenance
- 2T3X3 - Vehicle Maintenance Control And Analysis
- 2T3X4 - General Purpose Vehicle Maintenance
- 2T3X5 - Vehicle Body Maintenance
- 2T3X7 - Vehicle Management and Analysis
Munitions & Weapons
- 2W0X1 - Munitions Systems
- 2W1X1 - Aircraft Armament Systems
- 2W2X1 - Nuclear Weapons

Support

3D - Cyberspace Support (activated on 1 November 2009, merging 2EXXX, 3AXXX, and 3CXXX)^[2]
- 3D0X1 - Knowledge Operations Management
- 3D0X2 - Cyber Systems Operations
- 3D0X3 - Cyber Surety (IA and COMSEC)
- 3D0X4 - Computer Systems Programming
- 3D1X1 - Client Systems
- 3D1X2 - Cyber Transport Systems
- 3D1X3 - RF Transmission Systems
- 3D1X4 - Spectrum Operations
- 3D1X5 - Ground Radar Systems
- 3D1X6 - Airfield Systems
- 3D1X7 - Cable and Antenna Systems (Cable Dawgs)
3E - Civil Engineering
- 3E0X1 - Electrical Systems
- 3E0X2 - Electrical Power Production
- 3E1X1 - Heating, Ventilation, AC, and Refrigeration
- 3E2X1 - Pavements and Construction Equipment
- 3E3X1 - Structural
- 3E4X1 - Water and Fuel Systems Maintenance
- 3E4X3 - Pest Management
- 3E5X1 - Engineering
- 3E6X1 - Operations Management
- 3E7X1 - Fire Protection
- 3E8X1 - Explosive Ordnance Disposal
- 3E9X1 - Emergency Management similar to FEMA in the United States.

Historian
- 3H - Historian
Services
- 3M - Services
Public Affairs
- 3N0X2 - Broadcast Journalist
- 3N0X5 - Photojournalist
- 3N1X1 - Regional Band
- 3N2X1 - Premier Band
Security Forces
- 3P0X1 - Security Forces
  - 3P0X1A - Military Working Dog handler
  - 3P0X1B - Combat Arms Training and Maintenance

Mission Support
- 3S0X1 - Personnel
- 3S1X1 - Equal Opportunity
- 3S2X1 - Education and Training
- 3S3X1 - Manpower
- 3V031 - Visual Information

Medical

Medical
- 4A0X1 - Health Services Management
- 4A1X1 - Medical Material
- 4A2X1 - Biomedical Equipment
- 4B0X1 - Bioenvironmental Engineering
- 4C0X1 - Mental Health Service
- 4D0X1 - Diet Therapy
- 4E0X1 - Public Health
- 4H0X1 - Cardiopulmonary Laboratory
- 4J0X1 - Physical Medicine
- 4J0X1A - Orthotics
- 4M0X1 - Aerospace and Operational Physiology
- 4N0X1 - Aerospace Medical Service
  - 4N0X1B- Allergy and Immunizations Technician
  - 4N0X1C- Independent Duty Medical Technician
  - 4N0X1F- Flight and Operational Medical Technian (New in 2014)
- 4N1X1 - Surgical Service
- 4P0X1 - Pharmacy
- 4R0X1 - Diagnostic Imaging
- 4T0X1 - Medical Laboratory
- 4T0X2 - Histopathology
- 4V0X1 - Ophthalmic
Dental
- 4Y0X1 - Dental Assistant
- 4Y0X1H - Dental Hygienist
- 4Y0X2 - Dental Laboratory

Professional

Paralegal
- 5J - Paralegal
Chaplain Assistant
- 5R - Chaplain Assistant

Acquisition

Contracting
- 6C - Contracting
Financial
- 6F - Financial Management & Comptroller

Special Investigations

7S - Special Investigations (OSI)

Special Duty Identifiers

8A100 - Career Assistance Advisor
8A200 - Enlisted Aide
8B000 - Military Training Instructor
8B100 - Military Training Leader
8B200 - Academic Military Training NCO
8C000 - Airman & Family Readiness Center RNCO
8D000 - Linguist Debriefer
8E000 - Research Analysis and Lessons Learned
8F000 - First Sergeant
8G000 - Honor Guard
8H000 - Airman Dorm Leader
8M000 - Postal service
8P000 - Defense Courier
8P100 - Defense Attaché
8R000 - Enlisted Accessions Recruiter
8R200 - Second-Tier Recruiter
8R300 - Third-Tier Recruiter
8S000 - Missile Facility Manager
8T000 - Professional Military Education Instructor
8U000 - Unit Deployment Manager

Reporting Identifiers

9A000 - Awaiting Retraining-Reasons beyond Control
9A100 - Awaiting Retraining-Reasons within Control
9A200 - Awaiting Discharge/Separation/Retirement for Reasons Within Their Control
9A300 - Awaiting Discharge/Separation/Retirement for Reasons Beyond Their Control
9A400 - Disqualified Airman, Return to Duty Program
9C000 - CMSgt of the Air Force
9E000 - Command Chief Master Sergeant
9F000 - First Term Airmen Center
9G100 - Group Superintendent
9J000 - Prisoner
9L000 - Interpreter/Translator
9P000 - Patient
9R000 - Civil Air Patrol (CAP)-USAF Reserve Assistance NCO
9S100 - Technical Applications Specialist
9T000 - Basic Enlisted Airman
9T100 - Officer Trainee
9T200 - Pre-Cadet Assignee
9U000 - Enlisted Airman Ineligible for Local Utilization
9U100 - Unallotted Enlisted Authorization
9W000 - Potential Wounded Warrior
9W100 - Reserved for Future Use
9W200 - Wounded Warrior ^[3]
9W300 - Wounded Warrior-Returned to Duty
9W400 - Wounded Warrior-Limited Assignment Status (LAS)
9W500 - Wounded Warrior-Retired/Discharged
9W600 - Reserved for Future Use
9W700 - Reserved for Future Use
9W800 - Reserved for Future Use
9W900 - Reserved for Future Use