Qualified Weapons Instructor

Qualified Weapons Instructor (QWI) (queue-why) is a qualification given to graduates of the Royal Air Force or Royal Navy Qualified Weapons Instructor courses. It is the equivalent to the United States Air Force Weapons School Course or US Navy's TOPGUN school. Graduates of a QWI course are entitled to wear a QWI 'patch' on their flying suit which denotes their status as an expert practitioner in air warfare.

Overview

At the end of the first or second tour of duty, the best front line fast jet aircrew are selected for a place on the course. They qualify in both ground school and flying phases of the course in order to return to the frontline to instruct weapons and tactics on operational Squadrons.

The QWI course lasts 9 months. It begins with an initial three weeks combined ground school where pilots and navigators learn about the weaponry of various aircraft. This is followed by 8 months of training back at their respective squadrons in the use of the weaponry specific to their own aircraft. The course culminates in the operational phase, the Combined QWI (CQWI), where everything learnt over the past 9 months is put into practice. Each morning the QWI students are given an Air Tasking Order (ATO). They then need to plan the appropriate missions required to fulfil the objectives laid out by the ATO. The Hercules and C-17 are included in the course to give the students an opportunity to integrate a slow mover into their mission plans.