Air Force F-15 Fighters Deploy to Protect Diego Garcia as B-52s Rotate In

May 16, 2025 | By Chris Gordon

Multiple U.S. Air Force F-15 fighters have deployed to the strategic outpost of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to protect the myriad of assets deployed there, including strategic bombers.

“F-15s are deployed to Diego Garcia to provide force protection,” a U.S. official told Air & Space Forces Magazine. The official declined to specify how many F-15s were deployed and also did not disclose which variant of the fighter is operating from the island.

Four B-52H Stratofortress bombers, multiple KC-135 Stratotanker refuelers, and other assets are on the island, which is a key U.K.-U.S. military base. Six B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, which were used against Houthi targets in Yemen, recently left the island after briefly overlapping with the BUFFs.

While the B-2s used against the Houthis were part of an operation run by U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East, the F-15s fall under U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, where Diego Garcia is located.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would halt its stepped-up bombing campaign against the Houthis using U.S. Air Force and Navy warplanes and drones after the group said it would stop attacking commercial shipping off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden, Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and the Red Sea.

During a visit to the Middle East, Trump left open the possibility that the U.S. could still use force against the group, which is backed by Iran.

“We’re dealing with the Houthis, and that was, I think, very successful. But maybe tomorrow an attack will be made, in which case we go back on the offensive,” Trump said in Qatar May 15.

F-15s have been called on to defeat drones in the Middle East, including at one point shooting down dozens of one-way attack drones launched by Iran against Israel in April of last year. Air Force and Navy fighters have also downed Houthi drones near Yemen.

While U.S. Central Command paused its 50-day military campaign, known as Operation Rough Rider, against the Houthis early this month after hitting over 1,000 targets and killing hundreds of Houthi fighters, according to U.S. officials, Israel has expanded its bombing campaign against the Houthis in recent weeks.

During the campaign, the Houthis fired on U.S. ships and aircraft and downed at least seven U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones. The USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier lost two F/A-18s off its deck during the campaign, and one F/A-18 last December in a friendly fire incident. All Sailors involved survived. The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier was also deployed to the region, and additional fighters and extra air defense systems were sent to the Middle East, an extraordinary surge in firepower, particularly when combined with the bombers stationed on Diego Garcia. The deployment of the F-15s was first reported by The War Zone.

The ceasefire between the Houthis and the U.S. does not extend to Israel, and tensions remain high as the Houthis have attacked Israel with missiles and drones, and recently struck near Ben Gurion International Airport. The Houthis say they are retaliating for Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, which has expanded. The Houthis and nongovernmental groups claim that scores of civilians have been killed in the U.S. and Israeli strikes in Yemen.

“If the Houthis continue to fire missiles at the State of Israel, they will be severely harmed, and we will also hurt the leaders,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth joined Trump during his trip to the Middle East, visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Trump and Hegseth gave a speech to troops stationed at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, May 15, which houses the forward headquarters of CENTCOM, Air Forces Central, and the Combined Air Operations Center.

What’s Going On With Retirement and Separation Orders?

May 16, 2025 | By David Roza

Airmen scheduled to retire or separate early next year may have to wait a little longer for their official orders to do so, as the Air Force is running low on cash to cover moving expenses.

In a memo that circulated through social media last week, officials at the Air Force Personnel Center told military personnel flights that the service is delaying issuance of separation orders for troops with a separation date of Jan. 1, 2026 or later, and the service is delaying issuance of retirement orders for troops with a retirement date of April 1, 2026 or later.

This isn’t stop-loss, where troops are kept in uniform beyond their separation or retirement dates. Airmen due to separate or retire next year will still do so on their approved dates. But the orders that cover troops’ moving expenses will not be issued until the start of fiscal year 2026.

That’s because even if an Airman does not move until 2026, the Air Force sets aside money to pay for that move in FY2025, if that is when his or her orders are issued.

“Permanent Change of Station (PCS) funds are obligated at the time the separation or retirement orders are authenticated,” an Air Force spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “By better managing the timing of order issuance, the Air Force can align the obligation of these PCS funds with mission requirements, budget realities, and overall fiscal year execution.”

The memo, which Air Force officials confirmed is authentic, said the move ensures the Air Force’s FY25 military personnel (MILPERS) budget stays in the black. Otherwise, it could violate the Anti-Deficiency Act.

“It’s not because the Chief of Staff of the Air Force said ‘we want to wait to give people orders,’” said RAND senior operations researcher and Air Force veteran Lisa Harrington. “It’s because the Air Force must comply and not overspend that budget by law.”

Sometimes the planned MILPERS budget comes up short of actual need. In 2023, for example, the Air Force had to pause bonus programs, PCS moves, and some other incentive pays for nearly three weeks when the service ran out of personnel funds. Higher-than-expected PCS costs, a result of inflation, and higher retention and recruiting bonuses all contributed to the shortfall, officials said at the time.

Air Force officials could not immediately provide specific factors that may have contributed to this year’s MILPERS crunch. Inflation, exchange rates, retention levels, and other fluctuating factors mean it may be impossible to eliminate the possibility of a shortfall entirely. But better integration of MILPERS policy stakeholders and better data on the impact of bonuses could reduce the likelihood of a shortfall, or mitigate the impact of one, RAND wrote in the past.

The delay should lift when FY2026 starts–and new cash arrives–on Oct. 1, which is about three months before the relevant separation dates begin on Jan. 1, 2026, and about six months before the relevant retirement dates begin on April 1, 2026.

This delay could affect Airmen who planned on setting up their moves early, as the memo warns Airmen to “refrain from any financial obligations that would create expenses and/or a hardship associated with preparing for a move until they receive orders in hand.” But there is no regular tempo for issuing military orders, according to the Air Force spokesperson.

“There is no “typical” timeline for orders issuance,” the spokesperson said. “The length of time for how far in advance orders are issued can vary widely.”

The memo outlines a process where separating or retiring troops with “a justifiable hardship” can apply for exceptions, but exceptions will not be granted “for personal convenience, e.g. to out-process prior to SkillBridge training.”

SkillBridge is a Defense Department program that provides internships, apprenticeships, or training in civilian organizations for transitioning Active service members. Airmen don’t need orders to apply for or begin Skillbridge training, but the delay means Airmen can’t out-process from their current duty location, which could limit where they can participate in Skillbridge.

When the pause lifts, AFPC will prioritize cases based on their separation or retirement date and participation in SkillBridge, though it could take a while.

“AFPC will quickly work the backlog of orders when authorization is restored, but a delay at the restart should be anticipated,” the memo said. “Orders will not be prioritized merely to accommodate terminal leave since nearly all separating Airmen take terminal leave.”

Though MILPERS shortfalls may be impossible to eliminate, the delay in orders raises familiar questions, such as whether the time- and resource-heavy process of moving families every two or so years is really necessary.

“Why does the Air Force move people at the pace it does, and how can we help them think about the order-of-magnitude savings from policy changes that might slow that down?” Harrington said.

For example, what would be the operational and fiscal impact of changing overseas tour lengths from 36 months to 48 months? RAND is working with the Air Force to try to answer questions like those.

The answers could be particularly important as the service adopts a new force generation model known as AFFORGEN. Under the model, units go through 24-month cycles broken into six-month phases: “reset,” “prepare,” “ready,” and “available to commit.” AFFORGEN ties in with a shift to deployable combat wings, where Airmen train, deploy, and rotate home together in large formations rather than ad hoc, as was common during the Global War on Terror.

How the Air Force pursues those changes could impact the pace of PCS moves, which in turn could affect the size of the PCS budget, Harrington said.

Meink Sworn In as Air Force Secretary

May 16, 2025 | By Chris Gordon

Dr. Troy E. Meink was sworn in as the next Secretary of the Air Force on May 16, placing a career civil servant with extensive experience in space intelligence at the helm of the Air Force and Space Force.

Meink was sworn in by Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg at the Pentagon.

“I am humbled and excited to be the 27th Secretary of the Air Force,” Meink said in a statement posted on social media. “I’d like to thank President Trump for the chance to work for our Total Force Airmen and Guardians supporting our Nation’s defense.”

A former KC-135 navigator, Meink was the No. 2 civilian at the National Reconnaissance Office during the last administration.

The NRO, a Department of Defense intelligence agency, works closely with the Space Force. Now, three days after he was confirmed by a Senate vote of 74 to 25 in the Senate, Meink will begin to shape America’s airpower and spacepower as head of the Department of the Air Force.

“I am looking forward to leading such an amazing team—the most talented, professional, and capable air and space professionals the world has ever seen,” Meink continued. “We have a lot of work to do, and I can’t wait to move forward with you in the next few months and years.”

Meink will confront a changing Air Force. Its “re-optimization” initiatives, such as planning for the new Integrated Capabilities Command and other reforms, were paused so the Trump administration’s team could review them. How Meink and the administration choose to proceed could affect the service for decades.

Meink was pictured walking in the E-Ring of the Pentagon, which hosts the offices of senior defense and military officials, with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin and Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman in a photo posted on his X account May 16.

Secretary of the Air Force Dr. Troy E. Meink, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin, and Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman at the Pentagon, May 16, 2025. Courtesy photo

Meink replaced Gary A. Ashworth, a career acquisition professional who had been acting as Air Force Secretary since January while Meink waited for confirmation.

“It has been an honor serving you and your families as the Acting Secretary of the Department of the Air Force these past four months,” Ashworth wrote in a letter to the force released May 13. “Before I move on, I want to thank each and every one of you for the incredible professionalism you have displayed. During this transition, you have stayed calm, executed the mission, and moved the DAF forward.”

Now that Trump has signed off on the next-generation F-47 crewed fighter, Meink will have to figure out how to balance paying for the platform while maintaining the current fighter fleet, already the oldest in 30 years, while meeting other Air Force requirements.

Among them is the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile system, which is to replace the Minuteman III missile. The program will likely be restructured as officials wrestle with the cost of nuclear modernization. Meink and Allvin will also have to address delays in delivering the new “Air Force One” aircraft, which is being produced by Boeing, as well as competition for funding that could threaten other programs.

Allvin wrote on X that the Air Force is “ready to move out in support” of Meink’s vision for the service.

The Department of the Air Force is reorienting its budget towards the Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative, which calls for more advanced space tracking, interceptors, and lightning-fast data transfer—an initiative where the Space Force will play a leading role.

That will likely draw more resources to the Space Force, and possibly the Air Force. Space Force leaders have said they need more resources and manpower to keep up with their growing mission portfolio and existing commitments. Trump championed the establishment of the Space Force in his first term, and Meink is the most space-experienced senior leader in the Pentagon.

But what exactly the Trump administration’s planned $1 trillion in defense spending will be used for is still pending.

Secretary of the Air Force Dr. Troy E. Meink at the Pentagon, May 16, 2025. Courtesy photo

EA-37 Compass Call Electronic Warfare Jet Completes First Training Mission

May 16, 2025 | By Chris Gordon and David Roza

The Air Force’s new electronic warfare jet has flown its first training mission, a critical milestone as the service modernizes its aging fleet of jammer aircraft.

An EA-37B Compass Call from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., took off for a training sortie May 2, crewed by Airmen from the 55th Electronic Combat Group.

The aircraft is a modified Gulfstream G550 business jet and is replacing the older, slower turboprop EC-130H, which is also nicknamed the Compass Call.

The two aircraft share much of the same BAE Systems and L3Harris equipment, but on the new EA-37B, the Air Force is getting a far more modern aircraft that can fly at much longer ranges and which will be upgraded further.

Because the mission was the first training sortie for EA-37 crews, the flight primarily served to familiarize the aircrew from the 43rd Electronic Combat Squadron with the aircraft and its systems. Airmen were able to review the basic tactics, techniques, and procedures needed to operate the aircraft effectively, a spokesperson for the 55th Wing, the parent unit that operates the EA-37B, told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

One of Davis-Monthan’s two EA-37Bs conducted the mission. The Air Force has said that it expects to receive five aircraft this year and plans to operate a fleet of 10 EA-37Bs by 2029, all of which will be headquartered at the Tucson base.

The EA-37B is designed to jam enemy radars, electronic systems, and communications. It will also help conduct suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) missions by disrupting sensors and command-and-control batteries. The EA-37B can also fly at 40,000 feet and 600 knots compared to the EC-130H’s ceiling of 25,000 feet and 300 knots.

A U.S. Air Force EC-130 Compass Call aircraft, assigned to the 41st Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron, taxis before taking off from Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates, June 29, 2021. U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Wolfram M. Stumpf

The EC-130Hs that are being replaced also posed substantial readiness challenges. Though the EA-37B was planned as a one-for-one replacement for EC-130H planes, only five older Compass Calls are currently operational, according to the latest data provided by the Air Force. At the end of fiscal 2023, the average age of the planes in the EC-130H fleet was roughly 50 years and they had a mission capable rate of just 33 percent.

“[W]e have adversaries that are developing long-range kill chain ecosystems and anti-access area denial capabilities,” 16th Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. Thomas Hensley said in a statement last summer when the first EA-37 arrived in Tucson. “The Compass Call will allow us to do things in the nonkinetic spectrum as well as in the electromagnetic spectrum to give us the advantage and not them.”

Trump Touts ‘F-55’ Fighter: Is There a Twin-Engined F-35 in the Air Force’s Future?

May 15, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

President Donald Trump is interested in developing a twin-engined, upgraded version of the F-35 fighter, he said during a press event May 15 in Qatar marking the sale of Boeing airliners and GE Aerospace engines to Qatar Airways. He said he would name the improved aircraft the “F-55” and also referred to a freshly improved F-22 as the “F-22 Super.”

Trump said he’s asked the U.S. military “to look into the F-35.”

“We’re doing an upgrade, a simple upgrade, but we’re also doing … I’m going to call it an F-55, and that’s going to be a substantial upgrade,” Trump said in a surprise announcement.

The future aircraft will have “two engines, because the F-35 has a single engine … I don’t like single engines,” the president said, citing the possibility that one engine “goes out.”

“We’re going to do an F-55, and I think, if we get the right price—we have to get the right price—that’ll be two engines and a super upgrade on the F-35,” Trump concluded.

Development of the F-35 Block 4 upgrade is underway, and its foundational element, the Tech Refresh 3, is in flight test. The program does not call for adding a second engine, however, which would require a radical redesign of the F-35 and make it a much heavier—and likely less maneuverable and shorter-ranged—fighter aircraft. It would effectively be an all-new aircraft requiring extensive design and development, likely at a cost of tens of billions of dollars. The result would be a direct competitor to Boeing’s F-47 Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter, but probably without the F-47’s extremely low observable characteristics.

Boeing won the competition to build the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter, dubbed the F-47. The Air Force obscured details of the aircraft’s design. The first-ever sixth-generation fighter promises new advances in low-observability, speed, and reliability. USAF graphic

Trump was seated at the event next to Larry Culp, head of GE Aerospace, which will provide the engines for the Qatar Airways jets, and directed his engine comments at Culp. GE manufactures military as well as commercial engines.

GE pushed hard to be brought on as a second certified engine supplier for the F-35 early in the program and developed, at government expense, an F136 powerplant to compete with Pratt & Whitney’s F135, which is now the sole engine for the F-35. The idea was for the two engine makers to compete for annual buys of F-35 engines, but former defense secretary Robert Gates and Congress killed the F136 in 2011, arguing it was an unnecessary expense.

adaptive engines — GE Aviation’s Adaptive Engine Transition Program entrant, the XA100 engine. Photo courtesy of GE.

GE and Pratt also developed the XA-100 and X-101 Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) powerplants as a planned mid-life upgrade for the F-35. But in 2023, senior Pentagon leaders opted not to pursue the more powerful and fuel-efficient engines as a cost-cutting measure. Instead, they opted to go with Pratt’s Engine Core Upgrade (ECU) of the F-35, which is now in development. The rationale for not pursuing the adaptive engines after a decade of work and a $12 billion investment was that powerplants could not be used in all variants of the F-35. The Air Force would have had to fund further refinement and production on its own and couldn’t afford to do so.

An F-35A Lightning II arrives at Edwards Air Force Base, California, Aug. 1, 2022. Air Force photo by Chase Kohler

Asked if Culp planned to speak with Trump about military engines, a GE Aerospace spokesperson said only that Culp was there to sign and celebrate “the $97 billion contract with Qatar Airways” and could not comment further.

The AETP engine would have increased the F-35’s range by 30 percent, reducing its dependence on aerial tanking, and its acceleration by nearly 20 percent. The adaptive technology would also have helped with the F-35’s heat signature, now becoming a much more important consideration in stealth.

GE and Pratt are now developing competing versions of the Next-Generation Adaptive Propulsion engine, which will build on the previous, unused AETP engine technology and apply it to the F-47 Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter. They are working under matching $3.5 billion contracts. Air Force officials have said that the NGAP will be a smaller engine than the XA-100 or -101, and neither of those can be ported directly to the F-47.

Trump also said he considers the F-22 “the most beautiful fighter jet in the world,” and “we’re going to do an F-22 Super, and it’ll be a very modern version of the F-22 fighter jet.” He remarked that China has “copied it” in that country’s advanced fifth-generation fighter designs, but “they won’t be able to copy our engines too quickly, or anything else.” He added that the F-22 Super is something “I want to do.”

The F-22 is being fitted with advanced missiles, infrared targeting pods, stealthy fuel tanks and pylons, advanced electronics, and other improvements to keep it credible and capable while the F-47 is developed. The upgrade program has no specific name.

Air Force aviation program watchers are unfamiliar with the F-55 and F-22 Super nomenclature. When asked about the F-55 and F-22 Super, the Air Force deferred all inquiries to the White House. The White House National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment when asked to clarify Trump’s remarks. The F-35 Joint Program Office also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for both the F-35 and the F-22, said in a statement that it wanted to “thank President Trump for his support of the F-35 and F-22 and will continue to work closely with the Administration to realize its vision for air dominance.” The company declined to comment further and referred additional questions about Trump’s remarks to the White House.

New sensors and stealthy fuel tanks dominate F-22 spending across the future years defense plan. — Former Air Combat Command boss Gen. Mark Kelly posted this conceptual image of an F-22 firing the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile on Instagram in 2022, offering the first official glimpse of the new weapon. USAF illustration

Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet recently proposed an uprated F-35 as a possible alternative or powerful complement to the new Boeing F-47 on the company’s April 22 quarterly results call. Boeing was selected over Lockheed for the NGAD contract, and Lockheed was eliminated from the Navy’s counterpart program, the F/A-XX, leaving it with the F-35 as its sole major tactical aviation program, which is already 25 years old.

Taiclet said the uprated aircraft would be a “Ferrari” version of the F-35, and achieve 80 percent of the NGAD’s capability at 50 percent of its $300 million-per-copy cost. He did not, however, suggest fundamental changes that would alter the F-35’s mold line or add a new or second engine. A Lockheed Martin spokesperson said the company would not elaborate on Taiclet’s proposal “at this time.”

The F-35 JPO said it had little to share on Taiclet’s proposed upgrade as “this discussion remains entirely notional at this stage.”

Many airpower advocates want the Air Force to improve its fighter fleet in some form.

“Whatever path the Air Force takes on fighter modernization, it is crucial that it secures modern capabilities in sufficient capacity,” said Douglas Birkey, Executive Director of AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “The current fighter inventory is too old, too small, and has been worn hard in constant combat use for decades.”

How Golden Dome Will Help Create Space Superiority

May 15, 2025 | By Chris Gordon

The projected “Golden Dome” missile defense system could push the U.S. military to broaden its thinking on how to support space operations, the Space Force’s top planner said May 15.

“We need to think about terrestrial fires and demand signal,” Lt. Gen. Shawn N. Bratton, the deputy Chief of Space Operations for strategy, plans, programs, and requirements, said during an event hosted by AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “If a B-21 can drop a bomb on a space target that the adversary has in the terrestrial realm, I think planners should account for that.”

He said the requirements for the Golden Dome, which calls for space-based missile interceptors, as opposed to relying entirely on ground-based systems that intercept missiles in space, should make the U.S. military think more holistically about how it accomplishes objectives.

“Golden Dome does open a new area as we think about this boost-phase intercept from space,” Bratton said. “I don’t think we’re going further than that at this time on thinking about any specific capabilities, but it really is just to remind planners, don’t lock yourself into just the space domain. Sometimes the best way to solve that threat or defeat the threat that you’re facing within the space domain is to solve that problem in the terrestrial domain.”

The service last month rolled out its Space Warfighting guide, which it calls a “framework for planners” that Bratton said was aimed at ensuring current Guardians understand their service’s military mission as the Space Force increasingly moves towards more blunt rhetoric that acknowledges warfare may occur in space, and warns of more aggressive actions taken by adversaries such as China or Russia.

“We must be prepared to employ capabilities for offensive and defensive purposes,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman wrote in the foreword of the document. The Space Force has now made clear its primary mission is “space superiority” to allow the U.S. military to operate in space, much like the Air Force relies on air superiority to take out targets or allow other forces to accomplish a mission.

“This is the normalization of the language and showing the joint force that, hey, really warfare in space isn’t that different than warfare in other domains,” Bratton said. “There’s not a big mystery behind all this. We’re a warfighting organization, just like the other services are, and here’s how we do our business.”

Golden Dome calls for interceptors to shoot down missiles from space. While Bratton did not suggest that the Space Force plans to develop an ability to attack ground targets directly with interceptors, he left open the possibility that the technology required to field a space-based interception capability could be used in other ways.

“We were directed to look exactly at that: ‘Boost-phase intercept from space.’ By definition of those words, is, ‘Hey, I am on orbit, and I’m going to re-enter and impact during the boost phase, which is suborbital,” Bratton said. “Some of the work that we’ve done in the space superiority area, Golden Dome will benefit from, and I think space superiority will benefit from the future work on Golden Dome.”

Space-based interceptors are perhaps Golden Dome’s most vexing requirement, as the technology currently does not exist. But for the Space Force, it “puts us front and center,” Bratton said, and opens the door for the service to have the Golden Dome become complementary to its broader mission.

The Space Force is committed to “develop that capability and go field it,” he said of space-based interceptors.

“The technology to do that, we’ll be able to use that in other areas. … That’s a tough problem to solve, but we’re going to figure it out,” he continued. “There is some overlap, and I think we’ll benefit from Golden Dome.”

But the future of the Space Force doesn’t all rely on new space-based cutting-edge technology to take out objects, he said.

“We don’t always have to use space to solve a space problem,” Bratton said. “Just like we help the joint force solve their problems as part of them, we need to rely on them, and that’s okay. … Here’s what we need from the Air Force, the Navy, the Army, and the Marine Corps. We get a lot of demands from them, and so I think that’s a two-way street. And they are on board with that.”

Airmen Have Just Days Left To Apply For Select Retention Bonus

May 15, 2025 | By David Roza

Airmen interested in and eligible for selective retention bonuses (SRBs) have just a few days left to apply, as retention runs high and as the Air Force reaches the end of the funding provided by Congress for the program. The program closes on May 20, so officials encouraged Airmen to submit applications by May 19 to avoid any cross-timezone deadline issues.

SRBs are meant to incentivize reenlisting in high-demand career fields such as special warfare, cybersecurity, aircraft maintenance, and intelligence. The size of the bonus depends on the field and the Airman’s time in service, but they can be substantial: in 2024 the Air Force upped the maximum allowable reenlistment bonus to $180,000, with a career cap set at $360,000.

In December, the service expanded the number of eligible career fields to 89, up from 73 the year before and 51 the year before that. The Air Force has nearly depleted the $172 million Congress allotted for SRBs, a service official told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Had the Pentagon not been operating under a year-long continuing resolution, the Air Force may have had the flexibility to shuffle funding from other areas into the SRB to fuel it the rest of fiscal year 2025, but that’s not the case this year.

SRBs are often split between up-front payments and anniversary payments for each year after the reenlistment. Airmen already in the SRB program will still receive their anniversary payments, but the Air Force will no longer be able to accept new applicants after May 20. Ordinarily, the program would have run until Sept. 30, the last day of FY25.

“We realize there are Airmen who will be disappointed by this,” a service official said. “While we obviously prefer to run an FY25 program to the end of FY25, what I really appreciate is that we have used our entire budget that Congress appropriated for enlisted retention, and we’ve spent it on enlisted retention.”

That’s not always a guarantee: in 2023, for example, the Air Force had to pause bonus programs, permanent change of station moves, and some other incentive pay for nearly three weeks when the service ran out of personnel funds. Higher-than-expected PCS costs, a result of inflation, and higher retention and recruiting bonuses all contributed to the shortfall, officials said at the time.

The Air Force under-executed the FY24 SRB budget by about $50 million, FY23 by about $70 million, and FY22 by about $109 million—the budget for that year was $200 million.

Human behavior is difficult to predict amid a range of external economic factors, so while it is difficult to pin down exactly what made this year different, several changes may have helped. One is that last year the Air Force expanded the reenlistment window from 90 days prior to date of separation to a full 12 months prior to separation, giving troops more time to sign up.

The Air Force also opened the SRB FY25 window in December rather than in May as it did for the FY24 SRB. The number of career fields was also higher than usual, as were the multipliers that decide how large a bonus Airmen receive.

“I think all of those factors combined to drive very high take rates,” said the official, who anticipates a similar level of SRB funding in FY26, though that budget is yet to be finalized.

Retention in FY25 is right in line with Air Force targets, with 89.3 percent of enlisted Airmen staying on and 90.1 percent of Airmen overall doing so. To what extent large SRBs drive retention is unclear: a military personnel budget expert told Air & Space Forces Magazine last year that the Air Force often lacks information on the impact of past bonuses or incentive pays on accessions and retention.

“I can’t tell if a really big bonus offered 10 years ago to people working with computers was effective, because I can’t go back and see if the person who was offered the bonus got out or stayed,” said RAND senior operations researcher and retired Air Force veteran Lisa Harrington, who also called for better integration between personnel budget policy stakeholders to avoid or mitigate shortfalls such as the one that occurred in 2023.

The Air Force official thanked military personnel flights across the service, many of whom who will likely be busy processing last-minute applications over the next few days.

Golden Dome’s Price Tag Will Likely Exceed Half a Trillion Dollars, Space Force Chief Says

May 15, 2025 | By Matthew Cox

The “Golden Dome” homeland missile defense system proposed by President Donald Trump will likely cost more than half a trillion dollars, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said.

Saltzman’s prediction came during a May 15 POLITICO event when he was asked if he thought the Congressional Budget Office’s $542 billion estimate for the largely space-based air and missile defense system was too high. He said he believed it was not.

“I’m 34 years in this business; I’ve never seen an early estimate that was too high,” Saltzman said. “My gut tells me there’s going to be some additional funding that’s necessary.”

The Space Force is sure to play a key role in the initiative. The massive undertaking involves developing an architecture of satellites in low- and medium-Earth orbit designed to detect, track, and defeat hypersonic missiles and other sophisticated threats from adversaries such as China and Russia.

Golden Dome has been compared to President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, which was intended to protect the United States from nuclear attack. Dubbed by some as “Star Wars,” the missile defense program ultimately failed because of high costs and technology constraints.

Critics of the effort maintain that the billions of dollars already earmarked for it would be better spent on weapons capable of penetrating China’s formidable defenses.

“To build a system over the entire country would be incredibly hard, and we’re not sure it’s going to work,” said retired NASA astronaut Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who also spoke at POLITICO’s event, adding that the reconciliation package in the White House’s proposed defense spending plan has about “$26 billion in there for Golden Dome that could go toward things like [F-47] or the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, which we really need if we want to be competitive in the western Pacific against China.”

Some of Kelly’s Democratic colleagues agree.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) criticized the money proposed for the Golden Dome as “essentially a slush fund at this point” during a Defense Writers Group event May 14.

“They have to identify the technologies,” Reed added. “They have to go ahead and design an integrated plan. From what I’ve heard, it’s more of a warning system than it is a firing system, although they will develop firing units to complement it. But the key now is to identify hypersonics as soon as they launch, so that we can engage them. That’s still a work in progress.”

Saltzman acknowledged that Golden Dome is still in the early stages of planning and will involve overseeing many advanced elements “that you have to stitch together in very technical ways.”

“You don’t buy Golden Dome; you orchestrate a program that includes a lot of programs … it’s a system of systems,” Saltzman said. The U.S military will need to decide “which systems are critical … which ones are affordable, which ones are practical in terms of the technology we can rapidly bring to bear.”

Once a basic plan is drafted, it will be submitted to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to present to the White House, Saltzman said.

“That’s where we are—it’s in that basic planning to say, ‘given the threat scenarios that we think you’re trying to defend against, here are the systems that we think are appropriate, here’s the technology that’s available; here’s our plan how we would proceed,’” he said.

Space-based interceptors—an explicit part of the initiative—are perhaps Golden Dome’s trickiest requirement, and for the Space Force, it “puts us front and center,” Lt. Gen. Shawn N. Bratton, the deputy Chief of Space Operations for strategy, plans, programs, and requirements, said during a May 15 event hosted by AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. He added there was “a lot of overlap” in some elements of Golden Dome with “space superiority” missions that the Space Force was already seeking to pursue.

“The technology to do that, we’ll be able to use that in other areas,” Bratton said. “That’s a tough problem to solve, but we’re going to figure it out.”

As the Space Force works out its role in Golden Dome, Saltzman noted it’s “the nature of the business” to see cost estimates increase in the early stages of complex strategic defense programs as programs move toward real-world fielded systems.

“I think that we don’t always understand the full level of complexity until you’re actually in execution, doing the detailed planning,” Saltzman said. “Space and these kinds of capabilities are exquisite. They are unique in the sense that there’s not a lot of market that would drive the cost down. And so yes, there is sticker shock—but it doesn’t surprise me.”

Pentagon Editor Chris Gordon contributed reporting.

Lawmakers Frustrated by Lack of Details for Trump’s Defense Budget

May 14, 2025 | By Chris Gordon

Senior U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed frustration that they are being cut out of some of the Trump administration’s most central decisions on military policy and spending, namely the budget reconciliation process and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plans to slash the number of generals.

“We’re into a new, very complicated situation, which we’re trying to understand frankly,” Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters during a Defense Writers Group event May 14. “We haven’t got yet a very clear plan of what they’re doing.”

One immediate concern involves efforts to boost defense spending through a process known as budget reconciliation. Congressional leaders of the Senate and House committees that authorize military spending have legislated $150 billion in add-on spending.

Republican Roger Wicker, the Mississippi Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, wants assurance that the money will be used as Congress intends. During a hearing May 13, he asked nominees for senior Defense Department posts if they were committed to following Congressional intent for using the extra money. The nominees said they would.

But Reed, a West Point graduate who served in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, said he and his colleagues are worried that some of the “arcane rules” of how the reconciliation funds would be used were not entirely clear to lawmakers and there was a risk that the Pentagon would not follow their guidance and intent.

“I think it’s an extraordinary mistake,” Reed said when asked about the reconciliation budget by Air & Space Forces Magazine. “It surrenders congressional leverage and authority over the budget. Is it just a slush fund for the DOD to do what they want to do, or is it something that we can say, ‘No, these are the priorities?’”

Some Republicans share Reed’s frustration, including Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on defense and a former Senate majority leader. In a May 14 appearance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, he complained that Hegseth had vowed to spend $1 trillion in fiscal 2026 on defense, only for the administration to reveal later that the funding actually included the added funding package from Congress. McConnell accused the administration of engaging in “budgetary sleight of hand.”

Other lawmakers say they are also searching for details. House Appropriations Chairman Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told Air & Space Forces Magazine May 12 that he still has not been given “a real clear understanding of what’s going to be in the reconciliation package.”

Part of the problem is the lack of a presidential budget request to add to in the first place. “It’s getting awfully late in the day,” Cole said. “We need more specificity, and then Congress will make some decisions.”

The concerns go beyond spending. While Hegseth has ordered at least a 20 percent cut in generals and admirals, Congressional leaders have not been told which positions will be cut and what analysis led to the decision, Reed said.

Reed said he and Wicker are exploring ways to ensure the funds in the add-on spending follow Congressional intent. He warned that a Pentagon move to ignore the lawmakers and “just consider the money their money” would establish a precedent that Republicans might regret if the Democrats were to win control of Congress and eventually the White House.

“The one rule here is what goes around comes around,” he said.