When mission requirements emerge to test or validate tactics or training programs, state-of-the-art distributed training systems afford a bridging method for efficient exploration and development if used with appropriate attention to system strengths and limitations. The United States Air Force Weapons School's 16^th Weapons Squadron is the first USAF advanced tactical training unit to harness distributed simulation technology specifically for exploration, validation, and enhancement of air combat tactics training programs. The Air Force Research Laboratory's F-16 DMO research site teamed with the USAFWS to provide DMO facilities, technical support, data collection, and training analysis. With fours years of program development and two years of performance data collected, this paper examines the 16^th WS program as a case study to provide a roadmap of lessons learned for distributed training application in the advanced air combat training environment. The discussion opens with an assessment of mission constraints and requirements that drove the exploration of advanced training simulation applications in the F-16 and F-15 Weapons Instructor Courses (WIC). The examination then moves to a discussion of Air Force Research Laboratory and WIC data collection methods to assess graduate combat capability in DMO. The program's evolution provides the context for discussing perceived and tangible results along with their implications for future extension of simulation technologies tactical training. Performance assessment comparisons between AFRL and WIC methodologies are explored in the context of the current DMO training program in both objective and subjective methods. Finally, the results of the 16^th WS training initiative are compared to the USAF concept of operations for distributed mission training/operations for an examination of the implications of current lessons versus long-term program vision.