Has anyone seen a master’s in operations research, systems engineering, or data analytics measurably improve targeting, FSCM design, and battalion C2? I’ve got a 12–18 month window before PCS and can carve out 8–10 hours a week — looking for coursework that tightens the targeting cycle and fire support integration, not just adds letters after my name.
I got the most measurable gains from Georgia Tech’s OMS Analytics (https://pe.gatech.edu/degrees/analytics): I took Optimization and Simulation and used the projects to rebuild our battalion FSCM workflow; a simple LP tightened target nomination and sensor-to-shooter pairing and gave us defensible CFL/FSCL adjustments. Do you have AFATDS exports you can feed into the homework datasets? With your “8–10 hours a week” across 12–18 months, plan one course per term; NPS OR is fantastic if you can go full-time, but OMSA is the realistic impact-now path.
Quick example: a discrete‑event simulation course let me build our battalion targeting flow in Python/SimPy — treating nominations as a queue and FSCMs as constraints showed exactly where approvals and sensor handoffs were adding minutes, which we fixed in the FSE SOP. With your “8–10 hours a week,” one DES class is enough if you drive it with unclass logs and brief the S3/FDO; full degree optional. Do you have clean timestamps you can pull from AFATDS or chat to seed it?