The Army is creating a new job for air defense soldiers
The Army is adding more soldiers to some of its most overworked units, creating a new job that will operate and maintain the service’s largest air defense systems, officials confirmed to Task & Purpose.
The Air and Missile Defense Systems Repairer will be trained to “troubleshoot, fault isolate, repair, service, modify, fabricate, and inspect” Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile systems, officials announced in an April 1 military personnel message. The job’s military occupational speciality, or MOS, will be 14W.
The soldiers in the new MOS will work closely with, and in some cases possibly replace, those in 14E and 14T MOSes, roles that maintain and operate Patriot and THAAD batteries.
The service is planning for about 300 14W soldiers to make up the new career field, which will include both new recruits and soldiers who switch jobs, according to Col. Angela Chipman with the Army’s personnel team at the Pentagon.
Air defense soldiers are among the most often deployed troops in the Army, as rockets, ballistic missiles, and ever more numerous drones threaten forces in places like the Middle East. Patriot and THAAD missile defense systems were originally designed to intercept enemy aircraft and incoming ballistic missiles, but they’ve also been upgraded to focus on drones.
With the growing need for air defense, the strain on its soldiers has also been acknowledged by Army leaders.
“I take a look at the geopolitical landscape, and it would be remiss on our part not to recognize the extreme value that long-range fires brings to the fight,” Chipman said. “They’re constantly on the go or constantly being applied to a problem set, and so it’s very easy to see value in expanding that capability.”
‘Swiss Army knife’ of air defense
The Army currently has five MOSes dedicated to missile defense, two of which focus on the large Patriot and THAAD systems. Soldiers in the 14E MOS operate and fire the systems while 14T soldiers maintain and prep the launchers. The new role, according to the MILPERS, will move towards a combined career field “rather than disparate operator and maintainer skillsets.”
Chipman said the Army is not getting rid of 14E and 14T MOSes. Rather, the service is adding a new position that can be more of a “Swiss Army knife when it comes to air defense artillery technology, versus just a specialist in one.”
According to the MILPER, 14E and 14T junior enlisted soldiers can volunteer to switch into the new MOS over the next several months. But a portion will remain in their jobs.
“We also recognize that sometimes it’s great to have a great depth of knowledge on a piece of exquisite equipment,” Chipman said. “So 14E and 14T for the foreseeable future are going to be absolutely staying put. They just are going to be slightly smaller.”
New recruits will be able to enlist as a 14W at the start of the 2027 fiscal year in October. New recruits will go to basic training and then onto Advanced Individual Training courses at the Army Air Defense School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.