The Royal Netherlands Air Force has initiated the development of a training concept that intends to harmonize the various training and education approaches for fighter, helicopter and transport aircraft using modern competency based training principles built into a classic, but concise instructional systems development approach. The test case for the training development approach was the design of a revised F-16 qualification training. The design team (both educational and F-16 pilot subject matter experts) was free to re-order initial and mission qualification objectives and select optimal training media and training ranges without having to consider specific development and implementation constraints, except that acquisition of expensive training media (e.g. Mission Training Center) should not be required. The proposed new syllabus is -apart from a short transition phase- a dramatic change from the current building block approach. From the very first sortie after the transition training, the candidate is continuously exposed to the full mission flow and has to deal with both air-to ground and air-to-air elements in the majority of sorties. Initially, scenarios are strongly simplified and the students are supported considerably by the instructor pilot, but gradually mission difficulty increases and instructor pilot support decreases. This whole-task training concept requires extensive and current tactical- and system knowledge of instructor pilots as well as timely scheduled simulator and live part-task sessions throughout the syllabus. As a result of a more smooth integration of skills, less live sorties are required to achieve limited wingman combat readiness. The paper outlines both the process and products of designing a competency based F-16 qualification training program.