Air Traffic and Air Space Management Technician

You are the facility chief and the aviation battalion's ATC technical expert. You came up through the tower and the RAPCON — now you own the standard, the airspace coordination file, and the safety investigation the SSG cannot sign.

You completed the Warrant Officer Basic Course (WOBC) and the ATC and Airspace Management Technician Course at the Army Aviation Center of Excellence, Fort Novosel, Alabama, and you arrived at your first 150A billet as the facility chief (or co-chief alongside a CW3) of an Army ATC facility — the fixed-base tower at a Continental Army Airfield, a RAPCON cell inside a Combat Aviation Brigade, or the ATC section of an Airfield Operations Battalion. Day-to-day you are the technical authority on every issue touching airspace, air traffic control, and airfield operations: you sign position-certification qualification records, you convene and chair the facility's standardization and evaluation (Stan/Eval) board, you defend the facility during Aviation Resource Management Surveys (ARMS) and FAA Quality Assurance (QA) tape reviews, and you maintain the facility directive, the Letters of Agreement (LOAs) with adjacent FAA facilities and other Services, and the airspace coordination file for the unit's MOAs, restricted areas, and special-use airspace schedule. You also serve as the airspace management technician for the supported CAB or airfield — coordinating airspace deconfliction plans, advising the S-3 on Class D and MOA scheduling, and interfacing with the FAA on restricted-area activations. On top of that, you still wear warrant officer rank in an Army unit: officer call, professional development boards, OER preparation for your facility NCOs, and the property accountability for a cab full of communications and navigation equipment.

• 01Chair a facility Stan/Eval board — schedule no-notice evaluations, run position-certification boards, issue and document facility certification appointments to AR 95-2 and ATP 3-04.94 standards.
• 02Maintain the facility directive and all LOAs with adjacent FAA facilities, military facilities, and ARTCC/TRACON — review, revalidate, and coordinate amendments before the current edition expires.
• 03Advise the CAB or brigade S-3 on airspace deconfliction: coordinate Restricted Area activations, MOA schedules, NOTAM/NOTMAR submissions, and the airspace coordination area plan through the Corps or Division G-3 air cell.
• 04Defend the facility during an ARMS review and an FAA QA voice-tape review — position-certification records current, strip/IDS-4 records preserved to the retention standard, facility directive signed and dated, LOAs current.
• 05Run a deployable ATC capability using the AN/TPN-31 ATNAVICS — site survey, equipment setup and certification, frequency coordination with the FAA and host-nation ATC, and safe facility closeout.
• 06Brief the CAB commander and airfield commander on ATC and airspace status: deal trend, position-certification posture, ATNAVICS readiness, FAA QA findings, upcoming LOA amendments.

• —FAA Order JO 7110.65 — Air Traffic Control (the operational standard your facility runs to; you enforce it, you're the authority on it).
• —AR 95-2 — Airfield, Heliport, and Heliport Operations (the Army regulation that establishes ATC facility authority, certification standards, and ARMS review criteria; you live inside this).
• —ATP 3-04.94 — Army Air Traffic Services (the Army doctrine that overlays JO 7110.65 with the tactical / operational environment; the Stan/Eval and facility-directive framework lives here).
• —AR 95-1 — Flight Regulations (governs Army aviation operations at the airfield level — know how ATC authority and pilot authority interact).
• —FM 3-04 — Army Aviation (the branch doctrine; airspace coordination and ATC support to aviation operations described at the operational level).
• —DA PAM 600-3 — Officer Professional Development (Warrant Officer chapter covers 150A career arc, competitive categories, and progression to CW3/CW4).

• —WOBC and ATC and Airspace Management Technician Course complete — the warrant officer entry credential and the technical qualification that distinguishes the 150A from the facility NCO.
• —Facility director / facility chief designation in writing — signed by the airfield commander or the supported unit's appropriate authority per AR 95-2; working the position without the designation on file is an ARMS finding.
• —All facility position certifications current and documented — no lapsed certifications, no controllers working positions without signed appointment letters in the facility record.
• —LOA review cycle current — all Letters of Agreement reviewed, renewed, or amended within the period specified in the LOA itself (typically every 2 years); lapsed LOAs are operational errors waiting to happen.
• —OER (Officer Evaluation Report) profile from first KD that the rater and senior rater can defend — with bullets tied to measurable facility outcomes (deal trend, ARMS result, position-certification rate, ATNAVICS readiness).

• —Signing a position-certification appointment for a controller who has not completed all required phases — the appointment letter carries your warrant officer designation; an under-qualified controller's error traces back to the document you signed.
• —Letting the facility directive go un-updated for more than two publication cycles. An expired directive is an ARMS major finding and an operational-error defense that the airfield commander cannot win.
• —Failing to coordinate a Restricted Area activation through the appropriate ARTCC / FAA TRACON before the flight. An uncoordinated activation creates a safety event and a chain of paperwork that runs from the airfield to the FAA regional administrator.
• —Treating the ATNAVICS as the NCO's problem. You are the technical authority on deployable ATC capability; the warrant who cannot supervise an ATNAVICS site setup is the warrant the CAB S-3 stops routing airspace coordination requests to.
• —Assuming an informal phone conversation with the FAA TRACON is an LOA amendment. Only signed, dated, and appropriately approved written amendments change the LOA — and the FAA QA review knows whether the change was documented.

The good WO1 or CW2 150A is the facility chief the ARMS team finds with a clean certification board, current LOAs, a signed facility directive, and a deal rate trending down — and who can brief the CAB commander on airspace posture in five slides without the airfield commander having to set context first. The 15Q SSGs in the facility run the watches; this warrant officer runs the standard and the airspace coordination file, and those are two different disciplines. The brigade aviation staff knows to route every MOA / restricted-area / special-use airspace question through the 150A first.

You are the senior technical voice in Army ATC and airspace management — the warrant the Division G-3 Air calls when the airspace plan is wrong, the warrant the Aviation Branch calls when the doctrine needs a rewrite, and the warrant the CAB commander trusts to advise the Corps air-traffic picture during a CTC rotation.

At CW3 and above, your seat widens from the facility to the formation and beyond. You may be the senior 150A in an Airfield Operations Battalion (AOB) — the unit that owns all Army ATC and airfield operations support within a theater — where you advise the battalion commander on ATC technical readiness, manage the warrant officer development program, interface with the USAF Air Traffic Control Activity (ATCA) and FAA regional offices at the senior technical level, and drive airspace policy decisions through the Division or Corps G-3 Air cell. At the Division or ASCC level, you sit in the theater airspace management architecture — coordinating with JFACC staff, the USAF AFATCS (Automated Flight Service Station) program office, the Corps Airspace Element, and the FAA on long-range special-use airspace planning. At Army institutional billets — the Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Novosel, the Aviation Branch's doctrine development cells, or the Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) — you are the technical author on ATP 3-04.94 revisions, the ATC and Airspace Management Technician Course curriculum, and the fielding documentation for Army ATC system upgrades (AN/TPN-31 ATNAVICS, integrated facilities display systems). CW4 and CW5 150As who have the institutional assignments and the OER profile are the officers the Aviation Branch calls when the Senate Armed Services Committee staffers ask why Army airspace deconfliction failed in the accident investigation — your name is on the doctrine they cite.

• 01Advise the Division or Corps G-3 Air on the theater airspace management plan — MOA / restricted-area / special-use airspace architecture, the Airspace Control Order (ACO) cycle, and the procedural separation framework between Army aviation and USAF / coalition fixed-wing.
• 02Lead the ATC technical warrant officer community for a CAB, AOB, or installation — warrant officer development, OER input, accession mentorship for 15Q NCOs pursuing 150A packets, and the professional development pipeline.
• 03Interface with USAF ATCA, FAA regional offices, and ICAO-certified ATC authorities on coalition airspace agreements, LOA amendments, and joint ATC facility operations — at the level where technical authority and senior officer credibility must coexist.
• 04Write or revise doctrine and training publications (ATP 3-04.94, TRADOC curriculum) — at CW4/CW5 the 150A community's technical contribution to Army ATC doctrine flows through you.
• 05Conduct the ARMS technical review at the AOB or CAB level — assess facility certification programs, LOA currency, ATNAVICS readiness, facility directive posture, and the deal/operational error trend across multiple facilities simultaneously.
• 06Advise the MEDEVAC, UAS, and manned aviation S-3 staffs on tactical airspace deconfliction during complex, multi-domain operations — the role that distinguishes a senior 150A from a senior ATC NCO.

• —FAA Order JO 7110.65 — Air Traffic Control; FAA Order JO 7400.10 — Special Use Airspace (at this level you comment on these during FAA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking cycles).
• —AR 95-2 — Airfield, Heliport, and Heliport Operations; AR 95-1 — Flight Regulations (you interpret both for formation-level application, not just facility-level execution).
• —ATP 3-04.94 — Army Air Traffic Services (at CW4/CW5 you may be the author or subject-matter reviewer for revisions).
• —JP 3-52 — Joint Airspace Control (the joint doctrine that Army airspace management integrates into during coalition or joint operations; the JFACC staff will test you on it).
• —FM 3-04 — Army Aviation; ADP 3-0 — Operations (the operational framework Army ATC supports; the senior 150A who hasn't read ADP 3-0 cannot brief a division commander).
• —DA PAM 600-3 — Officer Professional Development, Warrant Officer chapter (CW3 through CW5 progression criteria, branch-designated billets, and the chief warrant officer five institutional pathway).

• —CW3 promotion: 5 years TIG at CW2, centralized promotion board at HRC, OER profile with a competitive KD result (facility chief or AOB technical advisor billet demonstrating measurable airspace/ATC outcomes).
• —At least one institutional or staff assignment outside the facility chief seat — AOB technical advisor, division G-3 Air airspace technician, Aviation Center of Excellence cadre, or USAF-integrated joint billet — on the OER profile before CW4 consideration.
• —Master Resilience Trainer (MRT) certification or equivalent professional development milestone; Aviation Branch senior warrant officers are expected to lead professional development programs, not just technical programs.
• —Aviation Resource Management Survey (ARMS) result: no senior-150A-attributable major findings in any ARMS review during your tenure as the senior technical warrant in the formation.
• —CW5 (Chief Warrant Officer Five): HRC designation-board selected, typically to an institutional or Army Staff billet; the force structure has few CW5 150A billets — the profile needs both technical depth and a demonstrated advisory/doctrine contribution.

• —Providing airspace planning advice to the Division G-3 that conflicts with current FAA LOA terms without flagging the discrepancy. The airspace conflict surfaces during the exercise and the division operations cell names the airspace advisor.
• —Tolerating a subordinate facility's LOA or facility-directive deficiency because "they're working on it." At CW3+ you own the standard for the formation, not just your own facility.
• —Treating doctrine development as someone else's job. The 150A community's ability to operate in a multi-domain joint environment depends on doctrine that reflects how airspace actually works in combined arms operations — if the senior warrants do not write it, someone who has never run an LOA rewrite will.
• —Letting the ARMS pre-assessment role become a perfunctory slide review instead of a genuine facility-walk. The major findings the ARMS team discovers in the first two hours are the ones the senior 150A was supposed to find in the monthly walk-down.
• —Giving the UAS staff overly optimistic airspace deconfliction timelines without surfacing the LOA amendment lead-time reality. A bad deconfliction estimate on a time-sensitive MEDEVAC or time-sensitive strike mission is an aviation mishap waiting to happen.

The good CW3 through CW5 is the officer the CAB commander, the Division G-3 Air, and the FAA regional office call when the airspace plan is broken at 0200 and the CTC rotation runs on it at 0600. The 150A warrant at this level is not the one who can still run a watch in the tower — that was the CW2 version. This warrant is the one who can read an Airspace Control Order, find the three places it conflicts with the Army's published LOAs, brief the JFACC staff on the fix, coordinate the NOTAM amendment with the ARTCC, and hand the corrected plan to the formation before the birds launch. When a CW5 150A retires, the doctrine they revised and the WO1s they mentored into their first 150A billet are their service record. That is what the community tracks.