Combat Aviation Advisors all call the 6TH Special Operations Squadron home; it is the only Combat Aviation Advisory Organization in the Air Force. Though its mission is Foreign Internal Defense (FID) and Combat Foreign Internal Defense (CFID), those aren’t the preferred AFSOC catchwords. They use phrases like “combat aviation advisory unit” and “non-standard aircraft squadron” rather than sticking to the FID-A (Foreign Internal Defense-Aviation) other services use.

 

[CAA airmen will…] “operate with, by and through indigenous/foreign forces to bring foreign airpower into play…”
They conduct assessments, provide training and advice and support foreign aviation combat units in just about every imaginable area supporting combat air operations (aircraft maintenance, logistics, sortie planning, air-ground CAS type coordination and C3 just to name a few. All members of the 6TH SOS must be qualified instructors in their area of expertise, they must have an AFSC professional 7-level rating and must have some sort language skills.

The United States Special Operations Command is the traditional home of standing advisory forces. The command’s primary reservoir of operational advisory talent lies in one reserve and six active Navy sea-air-land (SEAL) teams, six national guard and fifteen active battalions of Army Special Forces, and one battalion-size squadron of Air Force combat aviation advisors. When employed together, surface, maritime, and air advisors provide the multidimensional capability necessary to improve the joint capabilities of foreign military forces. Of the three, Air Force advisors are the smallest, least well known, and most misunderstood capability...” Lt. Col. Norman Brozenick, 2002 (note: this was before  USSOCOM expansion and the creation of MARSOC)