Air Force Special Operations Command is taking a closer look at how it trains airmen to join each of its career fields, as the service’s elite corps prepares for a new era in combat. (Miriam Thurber/Air Force) But because an airman’s performance in the combat dive course is a key consideration in whether they should move forward in special tactics training, it’s unclear how removing it from the pipeline would affect that grading. For instance, airmen vying to join special warfare — the most elite subset of special operations — now face a fitness test that is broadly more challenging than in the past