For the past 10 years IDGA's Military Flight Training Summit has provided an opportunity for allied air forces and leading aerospace companies to share knowledge and network in a secure environment. The two-day summit is set to return this October 28-29 in San Antonio, Texas.This year’s conference is expected to bring together a community of 300+ Flight Training Program Managers, Instructors, Industry Leaders and Subject Matter Experts to discuss how partnerships, and technology are guiding the next era of pilot training for the U.S. military and its allies.

Every year, before the conference, IDGA publishes the ”Military Flight Training – North America” market report, one of the most comprehensive overviews of the military flight training market available today.

This year’s report is one of the most expansive yet, with 35 pages of information on U.S., Canadian, and NATO flight training programs, as well as data on overall market size, efforts to reduce carbon footprints, the impact of AI and VR, and much more.

In October 2024 the U.S. Air Force established the Flying Training Center of Excellence (FT CoE) within the 19th Air Force. Directed by the Secretary of the Air Force, the FT CoE has sought to bring together institutional development functions under a single command to modernize and enhance the effectiveness of Air Force pilot training.

Since its creation, the Center’s mission has been to “acquire, establish, secure, sustain, and seamlessly integrate” the best available tools and techniques into a training system that evolves with operational needs.

Brian Kirk is Deputy for Technology Integration within the FT CoE where he has played a critical role in developing an adaptive learning ecosystem, otherwise knows as “the portal”, for the CoE and future generations of Air Force Pilots. This October 28-29, Kirk will be in San Antonio to present at IDGA’s Military Flight Training Summit.

Before the conference, Kirk sat down with IDGA to discuss the new training portal, how it has been tailored to meet the personal needs of each student, and the impact AI will have on the future of flight training.

In 2020, 10 NATO allies (Belgium, Czechia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Spain and Türkiye) agreed to expand flight training capabilities across the alliance through the creation of the NATO Flight Training Europe (NFTE) High Visibility Project. 

By March 2024, NFTE had placed ~50 student pilots at four locations, added nine new training campuses, and established an industry advisory body.

Now leaders such as Jas Hawker, Principal Officer for NFTE, is working to raise awareness among NATO nations and expand the network further. This October, Jas will join the Military Flight Training Summit in San Antonio, Texas, to spotlight NFTE’s role in connecting industry with NATO alliance Air Forces.

Ahead of the conference, Jas sat down with IDGA to discuss how NFTE is working with the U.S. Air Force, objectives for 2025, and what the future of military flight training holds.