Can big data train America’s elite forces?

THE FUTURE of US Air Force Special Warfare stomps into the room on the double – a half-dozen men and women, fresh out of basic training, clad in identical off-white T-shirts and blue shorts. At Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, no trainee walks. Ever. This facility is about sustained maximum effort.

The trainees want to be among the Air Force’s elite Special Warfare troops, those who leap from planes on rescue missions or embed with front-line troops to direct air strikes. But before they can do that, they face a gauntlet of unforgiving qualification courses with infamously high wash-out rates. A report from May 2018 found