Air Force Reserve Command plans to link early officer promotions—better known as position-vacancy promotions—to the quotas for mandatory promotion boards. The PV promotions now will have quotas matched to the mandatory board quotas. AFRC officials said to calculate the number of available PV promotions, they will factor 20 percent and 30 percent, respectively, of the lieutenant colonel and major mandatory promotions. First up will be the February promotion board for majors. Under the new system, say officials, AFRC can predict the number of future PV promotions. The old method led to an overabundance of nominees; the number grew by 70 percent just in the last five years. Col. Shaun Kelleher, directorate chief for force management policy, said the change will mean that commanders “only forward their truly best qualified officers.”
House Panel Proposes Eliminating SDA, Space RCO
May 27, 2026
House lawmakers this week included language in their version of the fiscal 2027 defense policy bill that would dissolve two Space Force rapid acquisition organizations, absorbing their programs and potentially replicating their authorities in the service’s new portfolio-based acquisition system.