Air Force Fighters Control Semi-Autonomous Drones in ‘Crucial’ Test

July 7, 2025 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S. Air Force recently took a significant step in its push to integrate crewed fighters with semi-autonomous drones, the service’s research lab says.

Pilots of an Air Force F-16C and an F-15E each controlled two XQ-58A Valkyrie drones in an “air combat training scenario,” the Air Force Research Laboratory said in a July 3 release.

The test flight was carried out at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., and demonstrated USAF’s ability to achieve “real-time integration between manned and semi-autonomous systems,” the release stated.

The XQ-58A, made by defense startup Kratos, first flew in 2019 and has been used to explore the “loyal wingman” concept in which drones can be controlled by crewed aircraft.

That approach was the forerunner of the service’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft. The Air Force’s first CCAs—the YFQ-42A and the YFQ-44A—are currently under development. The tests with the XQ-58A are being used to develop capabilities that will be incorporated in the CCA program, the Air Force indicated.

Indeed, while the Air Force is spending $711 million on the CCA program in fiscal 2025 and planning another $789 million in fiscal 2026, the service continues to invest in supporting efforts too. Its Autonomous Collaborative Platforms program “matures technology to reduce risk through development, integration, experimentation, and test activities,” and is funded at more than $50 million in fiscal 2025.

“With this flight, we mark a crucial step in developing capabilities that harness human-machine teaming to overcome complex threats and expand our advantages,” Brig. Gen. Jason E. Bartolomei, the commander of AFRL, said in a statement. “By developing and integrating autonomous platforms with manned systems, we can quickly adapt, increase combat effectiveness, and reduce risk to our aircrews in contested environments.”

Elon Musk and others in Silicon Valley have stirred up debate by insisting that autonomous drones should supplant crewed aircraft. The Air Force, however, is promoting a more evolutionary approach in which unmanned drones fly in tandem with crewed fighters and are controlled by the fighter pilot—what the service calls “human-machine teaming.”

AFRL did not elaborate in its statement on how the XQ-58A drones were controlled by the F-16C, a single-seat aircraft, and the F-15E, which carries a pilot and a weapons system officer. Nor did AFRL offer details on what maneuvers the aircraft conducted.

An XQ-58A Valkyrie low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle launches at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., Dec. 9, 2020. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joshua King

Representatives for AFRL did not immediately respond when asked for further details about the test. The test flights were carried out in conjunction with the Air Force Test Center, Air Combat Command, the Navy, and the Pentagon’s Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve program. The XQ-58A is also operated by the U.S. Marine Corps.

Air Combat Command boss Gen. Ken Wilsbach said the test was part of the Air Force’s approach of using “operator-driven evaluations” to enhance human-machine teaming.

“Data from the recent flight demonstration will inform future development and deployment of semi-autonomous capabilities across the Department of Defense,” AFRL said in its release.

Space Force Cancels Major Tactical SATCOM Competition

July 7, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Force is canceling a competition to build new satellites for jam-resistant tactical communications, instead choosing to focus on operationalizing two prototypes it plans to launch next year as part of a new, “innovative” approach intended to accelerate getting new tech into operation as quickly as possible.

Space Systems Command announced the change, cancelling the planned $2 billion Protected Tactical SATCOM-Resilient, or PTS-R, program, which had aimed to build on the Space Force’s existing Wideband Global SATCOM constellation. In 2021, the Space Force awarded prototype contracts to Northrop Grumman and Boeing as a preliminary step to PTS-R.

Now Space Systems Command is changing again, this time to focus on “implementing faster and more robust capabilities, including bringing PTS-P prototypes into operation as quickly as possible.”

“We have initiated a new approach to bound cost and technical risk while rapidly delivering incremental capability,” said Cordell DeLaPena Jr., program executive officer for military communications and positioning, navigation, and timing, in a statement. “The benefits of this innovative approach include saving near-term costs by utilizing lower cost-risk contracts, and providing incremental capabilities faster by operationalizing current PTS-Prototype satellite capabilities after they launch next year.”

Northrop’s PTS-P payload is being integrated onto one of the company’s ESPAStar buses, while Boeing’s is being added to the forthcoming WGS-11 satellite. The planned launches for those satellites would slip from 2025 into 2026, according to DeLaPena and budget documents.

PTS-G (for Global), a new program introduced in the 2025 budget cycle, will continue as a separate line item. So will other tactical SATCOM programs, the Space Force said in a release.

In its fiscal 2025 budget request, the Space Force outlined plans to spend more than $2.1 billion in the next five years on the combined PTS-P and PTS-R effort, with the PTS-P part winding down and PTS-R ramping up. And even in the recently released fiscal 2026 budget request, the service included $273 million for PTS-R and described plans to award a contract and conduct work ahead of a planned launch in fiscal 2031.

PTS-G is also in the 2026 budget request, funded to the tune of $239 million with plans to award contracts for up to four satellites next year.

The service is still working on the ground system to accompany the new PTS systems, called the Protected Tactical Enterprise Service.

Space Force Awards $2.4B Contract for New Nuclear Command and Control Satellites

July 7, 2025 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Force has tapped Boeing to build up to four new satellites for the critical nuclear command, control, and communications mission.

The contract award, announced by Space Systems Command July 3, is valued at $2.8 billion for the first two satellites, with an option for two more, as part of the Evolved Strategic SATCOM program.

“This delivery will support Initial Operational Capability and is the first step in a phased approach to rapidly proliferate a diverse satellite constellation,” SSC said in a release.

The first two satellites are expected to be delivered by 2031, Boeing said in a release. The Space Force plans to reach IOC by 2032.

ESS will take on the nuclear mission currently being performed by the Space Force’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite constellation. The AEHF spacecraft provide both tactical and strategic communications, but the service is splitting those missions as part of an effort to proliferate more satellites and increase its resilience.

The program is a key element of the Pentagon’s sweeping modernization program for its nuclear enterprise. While much of the focus for that effort has been on the Air Force’s Sentinel ICBM and B-21 bomber, officials and experts say NC3—which encompasses a multitude of different systems across the military—is essential and in dire need of upgrades.

Evolved Strategic SATCOM is the “backbone” of that, according to Pentagon budget documents. Nuclear forces across the globe will use it for secure, jam-resistant communications with the president and the combatant commands, allowing decision-makers to maintain positive control over the nuclear arsenal, the Defense Department stated.

It’s also one of the biggest pieces of the Space Force’s entire budget. In the recent 2026 request, the service asked for $1.29 billion for the program—4.9 percent of the entire base budget and 3.2 percent of the total budget once reconciliation funds are included.

In its release, Space Systems Command indicated the space segment of the program alone will wind up costing around $12 billion. The Space Force has not officially declared yet how many satellites will make up the ESS constellation, but SSC said that “additional satellites are planned to be procured through fixed price contract actions that may be awarded as sole source to support Full Operational Capability and attain global coverage, including enhanced Arctic capability.”

For this first batch of satellites, Boeing beat out Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, who both worked on the AEHF program and earned rapid prototyping contracts for ESS back in 2020.

“Today’s award culminates nearly five years of industry competition and Government partnership to show the Space Force’s readiness to spearhead the modernization of the NC3 enterprise with the development and production of the ESS weapon system,” Col A.J. Ashby, program director, said in a statement.

It’s also another big multibillion-dollar win for Boeing after it was selected to build the Air Force’s Next-Generation Air Dominance Fighter, the F-47, earlier this year.

“The U.S. needs a strategic national security architecture that works without fail, with the highest level of protection and capability,” Kay Sears, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space, Intelligence, and Weapon Systems, said in a statement. “We designed an innovative system to provide guaranteed communication to address an evolving threat environment in space.”

B-21 Production Is Speeding Up, But How Much and For How Long Is Still Unclear

July 5, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

The $10.3 billion the Air Force and Congress want to spend on the B-21 bomber in fiscal 2026 will fund not only continuing development and fabrication, but increased production capacity, the service acknowledged. But USAF isn’t saying whether that accelerated manufacturing will buy more total B-21s than planned, buy the bombers faster … or both.

“The Air Force is committed to the successful fielding of the B-21 and is investing in the infrastructure necessary to support an increased yearly production capacity,” the service said in response to a query from Air and Space Forces Magazine.

“This proactive measure ensures the long-term health and efficiency of the production line, enabling us to deliver this critical capability to the warfighter,” the statement added. “Details regarding specific production rates remain classified.”

Previous budgets have indicated that B-21 production—based on a buy of 100 airplanes—could wrap up in the mid-to-late 2030s, suggesting a production rate of only seven or so airplanes per year. The Air Force was not immediately able to characterize by percentage how much increased capacity the 2026 budget would buy, compared with what it has today.

Northrop Grumman, which builds the B-21, telegraphed the move in April, when it took a $477 million charge on the program to cover unexpected materials costs and enable a speed-up in production, should the Air Force wish it. The company characterized the action as a “change in the manufacturing process.” Kathy Warden, Northrop CEO, called it a “process change” enabling “a higher production rate.”

The reconciliation bill language provided a total of $4.5 billion for a B-21 manufacturing capacity acceleration, and that amount is in the fiscal 2026 budget request, along with the Air Force’s ask of $3.4 billion for production and $2.3 billion in research, development, test and evaluation. The reconciliation amount was split, $2.4 billion for R&D and $2.1 billion for procurement.

The overall amount roughly matches the Pentagon’s budget overview, which says the B-21 would get $10.2 billion in fiscal ’26. Absent further spending forecasts, however, it’s not clear if the production capacity adds will be sustained.

The Air Force was not immediately able to say whether Northrop could accommodate additional B-21 production at its Plant 42 facilities in Palmdale, Calif., simply with more tooling and workers or whether a separate manufacturing site would have to be set up. Northrop referred all questions about B-21 production capacity to the Air Force.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin apparently isn’t sold on a bigger B-21 buy, though. He told the Senate Appropriations Committee on June 26 that the B-21 “is manufactured differently” than other aircraft, “and so we want to ensure that, before we accelerate, we don’t want to be overly zealous without fully understanding what it might mean to accelerate beyond a certain production rate.”

He said the Air Force is “intensely looking at” increasing the rate, “not only from an affordability point of view, but also a feasibility point of view, to ensure that we don’t go too fast.”

Allvin called the prospect of acceleration “very, very promising” and would provide “a significant capability for our Air Force.”

He reiterated the service’s line that it’s seeking a program of record of a minimum of 100 B-21s, but acknowledged that U.S. Strategic Command boss Gen. Anthony Cotton has suggested 145 might be nearer the actual requirement.

Cotton, in a March speech at the McAleese defense conference, said 100 B-21s is an “absolute minimum,” and that this benchmark, set around 2015, has probably been overtaken by events. That figure was established “when the geopolitical environment was a little bit different than what we face today,” said Cotton, who is retiring in the next few months. The figure of 145 was also the number Air Force Global Strike Command calculated it need when he headed that organization, he said.

Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere, now the head of Global Strike Command, also said in June that 145 might be the right number of B-21s, and that more will be needed anyway if the planned B-52J upgrade doesn’t work out. The Air Force is replacing the B-52’s engines and radar and refurbishing other elements of the 63-year old bomber’s airframe.

“I support assessing the increase of the production from 100 to 145,” Bussiere said at the Atlantic Council.

Allvin also made the connection between more B-21s and B-52 setbacks in May, when he told the Senate Armed Services Committee more B-21s would be needed if B-52 modernization “goes worse than we hope.” The Air Force has said it may invoke a Nunn-McCurdy breach on the radar modernization program, which signifies a 15 percent or more increase in cost over the program base or a significant delay in the program.

Although Allvin told the committee 100 B-21s is a number “we can stand behind,” he repeated previous comments that by the mid-2030s, the Air Force may wish to switch to something else made possible by advancing technology.

“I really want to look at the risk over time, and opportunities over time,” Allvin said.

Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, in testimony before the SASC in May 2023, said the Air Force may need to shift its investments away from short-range fighters to long-range bombers in the future, a requirement driven by the threats to island bases and tankers from very long-range adversary missiles.

At that time, Kendall testified, “if we’re ever going to significantly increase the production [of the B-21], we’d have to go re-look at how we are tooled for manufacturing.” That, he said, is “not a near-term decision.”

Allvin told the Senate Appropriations panel that in future conflicts, “having mass is … extremely important. And so, as we look at the minimum of 100, we will continue to evaluate how many [we] need at the time of production to make sure they’re meeting the need.”

Trump Signs Reconciliation Bill, Securing Billions for Air Force and Space Force Programs

July 4, 2025 | By Rachel S. Cohen

President Donald Trump on July 4 signed into law $150 billion in defense funds as part of the tax-and-spending package known as the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” after congressional Republicans approved the legislation in narrow, drawn-out votes earlier this week.

The megabill’s defense provisions aim to boost spending on key military priorities, from accelerating next-generation aircraft development and missile defense networks to shoring up the shipbuilding industry and replenishing munitions stockpiles.

“Years of chronic underinvestment in our national security has … allowed our adversaries to threaten us and challenge us in new and unprecedented ways, but that ends today,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said in a floor speech shortly before 4 a.m. July 3 as the chamber moved toward passing the bill.

“With these investments, we’ll work to restore American deterrence and build the ready, capable and lethal fighting force President Trump promised,” he said.

Nearly $39 billion—or 15.5 percent—of the money the Air Force and Space Force seek in 2026 comes from the bill. That includes more than one-third of the Space Force’s budget and 12 percent of the Air Force’s, putting the services in a precarious position as they watched the legislation progress. The money is available immediately.

The package provides billions of dollars for aircraft development, production, and maintenance, urging the Air Force to speed assembly of its new B-21 stealth bombers and buy more F-15EX fighters, as well as accelerate development of the next-generation F-47 fighter. It also invests in aircraft connectivity projects, stops the F-22 and F-15E fighter fleets from retiring, and calls for the “development, procurement, and integration” of unnamed long-range strike aircraft.

Among the other Air Force and Space Force provisions are $9 billion in funds to update troop dormitories and bolster bonus pay, housing stipends, child care, and tuition assistance across the military; $25 billion for Trump’s vision of a “Golden Dome” domestic missile defense network, which is expected to heavily rely on Space Force assets; anti-ship, air-to-ground, and air-to-air missiles; and more than $622 million for Air Force training exercises in the Pacific.

The Space Force’s X-37B spaceplane would also see a $1 billion windfall; the legislation offers the service nearly $14 billion for research and development projects overall.

The Trump administration is pursuing a $1 trillion defense budget not through the normal appropriations process alone, but split between two bills: the typical annual funding bill, and the One Big, Beautiful Bill, which Republicans enacted without Democratic votes through a process called budget reconciliation.

Disagreements on the reconciliation bill’s cuts to Medicaid, food assistance programs, effect on the national debt, and more spurred two of the longest votes in House and Senate history, which stretched on as GOP leadership sought the support of the party’s right flank and moderate Republicans. Several House Republican holdouts ultimately backed the bill without changes after criticizing the Senate’s tweaks. All but two GOP members opted to send the bill to the White House in a 218-214 vote July 3.

Its enactment is a major victory for Republicans, who used the package as the vehicle for vast swaths of Trump’s policy agenda.

Though the defense portion of the reconciliation package was intended as a five-year investment in the Pentagon’s most pressing needs, the Defense Department plans to use 80 percent of that funding to beef up a fiscal 2026 request that is essentially flat compared to 2025.

Defense officials will now make the case for the remaining $893 billion that comprises their 2026 ask, including $211 billion for the Air Force and Space Force.

If the services get all the money they’ve asked for across both avenues, the Air Force would sit at least $25.5 billion, or 14 percent, higher than in 2025. The Space Force would receive at least $11.3 billion, or 40 percent, more than in the previous year.

Defense experts warn that relying on one-time money through reconciliation may make it more difficult for the military to plan ahead, and can’t replace sustained funding through the annual base budget.

“I’m concerned there’s going to be a false sense that the problem of insufficient defense funding is solved when it’s not,” said Elaine McCusker, who served as acting Pentagon comptroller during Trump’s first term. She now works as a defense budget analyst at the American Enterprise Institute.

Air Force, Space Force to Triple Enlistment Bonus Funding in 2026

July 3, 2025 | By David Roza

The Air Force is requesting about $141 million for initial enlistment bonuses in its fiscal 2026 budget, triple the amount of the fiscal 2025 spending estimate of $46.6 million. The Space Force also wants to roughly triple its initial enlistment bonuses from $4 million in fiscal 2025 to $13 million in fiscal 2026.

Initial enlistment bonuses as large as $75,000 help bring recruits into “the hardest to fill skills” such as special warfare, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), cybersecurity, missile and space systems, security forces, and cryptologic language analysis, according to budget documents.

The number of career fields and associated bonuses amount vary year to year, but the services said this year’s increase is “due to larger number of members receiving initial bonuses.”

Indeed, the Air Force expects to award bonuses to 25,140 people in fiscal 2026, about 10 times the fiscal 2025 estimate of about 4,500, which itself was a small increase over the 4,333 people who received bonuses in fiscal 2024.

Most of the new recipients would receive relatively small bonuses, with 19,579 recruits taking $2,500 each. But 400 would receive a $50,000 bonus, 287 would receive a $65,000 bonus, and 207 would receive the maximum $75,000 bonus. Each of those top three bonuses went un-awarded in 2024 and 2025.

Enlisted Airmen and Guardians don’t begin to receive their initial enlistment bonuses until after they complete training for that job specialty. Training can take upwards of two years in career fields such as special warfare and cryptology. That means some of the Airmen and Guardians expected to receive bonuses in fiscal 2026 may have enlisted years earlier.

On the Space Force side, 100 Guardians are expected receive $40,000 each in fiscal 2025, which accounts for the entire $4 million IEB budget. But in fiscal 2026, 450 others will receive $20,000 each, adding another $9 million to the budget.

The budget documents do not list the size of the enlistment bonuses going to each career field. In the past, the Air Force promised $10,000 for a range of skills including avionics maintenance, missile and space systems maintenance, aerospace ground equipment, and cyber warfare. Air Force recruitment websites offer up to $60,000 for EOD and $50,000 for special warfare.

Airmen and Guardians in those fields could stand to make even more money once in uniform, as the services typically offer selective retention bonuses in high-demand career fields. Last year the Air Force upped the maximum allowable reenlistment bonus to $180,000, with a career cap set at $360,000, though this year the service ran out of money to cover new applicants.

The Air Force enlisted Selective Retention Bonus program is poised to grow a little in fiscal 2026, with an extra $4.4 million. The Space Force SRB is due to grow by $6.8 million.

Pentagon Keeping Bolstered Presence in Middle East in Wake of Iran Strike

July 2, 2025 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S. military is maintaining a beefed-up presence in the Middle East, including fighters and air defense assets, following the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities June 22 and subsequent retaliation by the Iranians against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

The U.S. had moved fighters to the region as well as additional Patriot air defense units, which were shifted to Al Udeid from South Korea and Japan.

“We maintain capability across the Middle East so that the President and the Secretary of Defense have a range of military options available to defend both our citizens, our troops, our forces in the region,” Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell told reporters July 2.

The effectiveness of the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear program has been hotly debated. Parnell said July 2 that the U.S. military believes it has “degraded their program by one to two years, at least intel assessments inside the department assess that.”

That is a greater setback than initially indicated by a preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency report leaked in media reports that suggested that Iran’s program had been set back by a few months. But it is a far cry from President Trump’s claim that Iran’s program had been “obliterated.”

After Israel began its attacks last month, the U.S. initially used Air Force fighters and Navy ships to help protect the country from Iranian missile and drone attacks, and the military ordered additional forces to the region to “enhance our defensive posture,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in a June 16 statement.

The Pentagon later expanded its military presence to enable it to conduct its own strikes against the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan sites.

Two U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons conduct a combat air patrol in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, May 25, 2025. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Natalie Jones

Some of these assets remain. The enhanced U.S. defensive presence in the region includes a deployment of Air Force F-16 fighter aircraft, additional Patriot air defense systems and personnel, multiple U.S. Navy destroyers equipped for ballistic missile defense, and two aircraft carriers, the USS Carl Vinson and USS Nimitz, multiple U.S. officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The F-22 Raptor stealth air superiority fighters from Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., which participated in the strikes on Iran, are returning home, the officials said. F-35 Lightning II fifth-generation fighters also participated in the strikes on Iran, though officials did not say whether those aircraft have returned to their home base.

Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle multirole fighters and A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft remain in the region as planned, and the Vinson and Nimitz are embarked with F/A-18 Super Hornets and F-35C fighters, as well as EA-18 Growler electronic attack planes.

An EA-18G Growler, attached to Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 139, launches from the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) during flight operations in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, June 27, 2025. U.S. Navy photo.

A total of 125 U.S. aircraft were involved in the June 22 operation against Iran, which was dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer.

Six U.S. Air Force B-2s carrying massive bunker buster bombs struck the Fordow nuclear site with 12 GBU-57 Massive Ordinance Penetrator bombs, while a seventh B-2 hit Natanz with two GBU-57s.

Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles launched from a U.S. submarine in the region at the Isfanhan site, destroying surface buildings there, though the complex is known to have expensive underground facilities.

Iran responded with a ballistic missile attack on Al Udeid on June 23. The U.S. had largely evacuated U.S. personnel and aircraft from the base, which normally houses around 10,000 U.S. troops and civilians.

The sprawling air base is a joint U.S.-Qatari facility that serves as the largest and most important U.S. base in the Middle East and hosts the forward headquarters of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Air Forces Central, and is home to the Combined Air Operations Center, the command center for airpower in the region.

Iranian missiles, either fired directly from Iran or its proxy forces, have been a persistent concern for U.S. forces over the years, and Qatar is located directly across the Persian Gulf from Iran.

Al Udeid successfully defended itself from over a dozen Iranian ballistic missiles with U.S. Army and Qatari Patriot operators.

Iran informed Qatar in advance of strikes, and Doha warned the U.S. Two former CENTCOM commanders, retired Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. and retired Army Gen. Joseph L. Votel, previously told Air & Space Forces Magazine they believed the Iranian attacks to be largely symbolic.

“They were going to do the absolute minimum they could do to satisfy the requirement to respond while not poking the bear,” McKenzie said of the Iranian attack.

In recent days, the U.S. has been sending some aircraft back to Al Udeid, according to U.S. officials and open-source flight tracking data.

Parnell did not discuss specific assets during his briefing on July 2.

Parnell said the B-2 and Tomahawk strikes, along with Israel’s punishing air campaign, “took a very strong psychological toll on Iranian leadership.”

Air Force Wants Extra $71 Million for Officer Aircrew Bonus

July 2, 2025 | By David Roza

The Air Force is requesting an extra $71.2 million in hazardous duty incentive pay for commissioned Airmen in fiscal 2026, plus an added $15.6 million for its officer retention bonus program, as the service expects more officers to take advantage of bonus programs.

Enlisted aircrew may not be so lucky. According to budget documents, the service is requesting $18.8 million less in incentive pays compared to fiscal 2025, due to a reduction in the number of recipients. The enlisted Selective Retention Bonus program is poised to grow a little, with an extra $4.4 million.

Hazardous duty incentive pay is meant to help retain Airmen in dangerous assignments that involve aviation, parachute jumping, demolition, special warfare, toxic fuels or pesticides, or “experimental stress” such as serving as test subjects in experiments studying the effects of pressure, heat, and G-forces on the human body.

Retention bonuses for both enlisted and officers are meant for specialties with low manning or poor retention and high replacement training costs.

In the Air Force, aviation-related fields receive the lion’s share of incentive pay funding. For officers, flying pay accounts for 99 percent of the service’s $469 million incentive pay request for fiscal year 2026. For enlisted Airmen, flying pay accounts for about 69 percent of the $52 million incentive pay request. Special warfare and related pays in parachute jumping and demolition accounts for another 27 percent for enlisted hazard pay.

Most of the bump in the officer aviation bonus is driven by a rise in the number of rated officers expected to receive it. The Air Force estimates 10,314 pilots will get an aviator bonus in fiscal 2026, compared to 8,941 in 2025—a 15 percent increase.

The biggest surge is in the Rated Officer Retention Demonstration Program, which rolled out in 2023 to provide extra incentive for Active-Duty pilots nearing the end of their initial 10-year contract to stay in another four to 12 years. The Air Force expects that program will grow by about 47 percent from 612 Airmen to 903 in 2026, and wants another $12 million to pay for it.

The size of the bonus for some aircraft types is also growing. Fighter pilots, for example, would see a 23 percent bump up from $27,528 to $33,781, while special operations pilots would get a 14 percent increase from $24,827 to $28,478.

The extra cash is meant to help address a long-running Air Force pilot shortage. Relentless deployments, aging aircraft inventories, and a shrinking force structure has contributed to a decade-long deficit of about 2,000 pilots, former F-16 fighter pilot and senior resident fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies Heather R. Penney wrote in a study published in January.

“The Air Force no longer has the depth of forces—neither aircraft nor pilots—needed to withstand combat losses and sustain effective combat operations at the scale, scope, and speed necessary to prevail against a peer adversary,” Penney wrote. “The Air Force must carefully preserve as much experience as possible in its pilot corps across the Total Force or risk further collapsing the Air Force’s combat readiness.”

Beyond pay, the service said in budget documents that it would be “increasing transparency in assignment and other personnel processes; implementing family support programs to improve quality of life; revitalizing squadrons by reducing additional duties, eliminating lower priority computer-based training, and increasing administrative support to improve quality of service; increasing capacity of aircrew training pipelines; and allowing retirees to return to duty to minimize the impact of manning shortages.”

Fewer enlisted aviators are expected to receive incentive pay. In fiscal 2024, enlisted fliers received $46.6 million for incentive pay. In 2025, that number is expected to grow to about $54.4 million. But in 2026, the Air Force is requesting $35.8 million, about a 34 percent funding decrease.

The Air Force is requesting $52 million for total enlisted hazardous duty incentive pay in fiscal 2026, down from $70.8 million in 2025.

The more general retention bonus programs for both officer and enlisted are both poised to grow in 2026, albeit at different rates—the officer program is set to grow 60 percent, while the much bigger enlisted program is projected to grow just 2.5 percent.

If America Wants Airpower, It Needs to Invest in Its Air Force

July 2, 2025 | By Douglas A. Birkey

The Pentagon’s fiscal 2026 defense budget, submitted to Congress last week, accelerates the downsizing of the U.S. Air Force. It proposes divesting 340 aircraft, while only acquiring 76. These cuts risk the Air Force’s ability to prevail.

“Peace through strength” has been a sounding cry for the Trump administration, as it was in the Reagan era 40 years ago, but rhetoric alone cannot enhance military readiness or restore deterrence overseas. That takes resources—investments in planes, weapons, and people. If the President wants the security options afforded by airpower, then he needs to invest in it. Congress must also work to rebuild America’s Air Force.

The U.S. Air Force is unique in its scale and scope. Airmen ensure air superiority, provide global strike and rapid global mobility, generate intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and enable command and control. They are responsible for two-thirds of America’s three-leg nuclear deterrence mission.

While the Navy, Marine Corps, and Army each possess their own elements of airpower, only the Air Force has the volume, range, and heft to meet combatant commander requirements at scale. Navy, Marine Corps, and Army aviation focus primarily on supporting their own service-centric organic missions, like fleet defense, protecting the Marine Air-Ground Task Force, and supporting Army unit movements; only the Air Force focuses all its capabilities on the joint force mission.

Here’s why that’s so important: When the Air Force takes a hit in the budget wars, the entirety of joint force operations feels the impact.

When President Trump ordered the June 22 strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, U.S. Air Force’s B-2s were the only aircraft in the world with the range, payload capacity, and stealth to execute the mission. None of the other U.S. military services or our allies could drop bombs of that size and capability, nor inflict the same kind of damage with something else. Few have the supporting elements that made it possible—large numbers of aerial refueling tankers, air battle managers, or the radar-evading advanced stealth fighters required to escort the stealthy B-2s to their targets.

Despite the spectacular display over Iran, America’s Air Force is no longer what it once was. Today, it is too old, too small, and too under-resourced to ensure the ready forces necessary to deter aggressors around the world and guarantee victory in a fight if circumstances warrant. In the two decades following the 9/11 attacks, the Army received $1.3 trillion and the Navy $900 billion more than the Air Force. The result is the Air Force is out of balance—with too many aircraft aging out of service, and too few modern weapons, planes, and parts.

The Air Force originally planned to acquire 132 B-2s, but post-Cold War budget cuts ended the program after only 21 were built. Just 19 remain in the active inventory today. In the 2000s, the F-22 fleet, once planned to include 750 planes, was cut short at 187. Today, F-35 acquisition continues to lag years behind planned numbers. Time and again, recapitalization plans have been delayed for other aircraft. The E-3 AWACS and E-8 JSTARS were supposed to be replaced in the early 2000s. No airborne JSTARS replacement was ever developed and the E-3 replacement, the E-7, will be cancelled in 2026 if the President’s budget plan is adopted.

Across the Air Force fleet, modernization plans have been cut, curtailed, or delayed repeatedly over the past three decades. Risks have compounded. Previous leaders simply extended the lives of older aircraft to fill the gap, but eventually, aircraft grow too old and frail to keep flying. Much of today’s fleet is reaching that point and the Air Force may soon be unable to perform critical missions.

The 2020s were supposed to be the decade when the Air Force finally modernized. The B-21 bomber, F-35, F-15EX, and F-47 fighters, Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), T-7 trainer, Sentinel ICBM, E-7, EA-37B electronic warfare jet, KC-46 tanker, and more were all positioned to reset the force. They still can, but it requires more money.

The U.S. Air Force had planned to follow the Royal Australian Air Force and the UK’s Royal Air Force, among other allies and partners, to acquire the E-7 Wedgetail. The fiscal 2026 budget submitted to Congress would end the program in favor of future space-based capabilities. Air Force photo by Richard Gonzales

Under this newest defense budget, the Trump Administration’s fiscal 2026 defense request fails to make the necessary investments to ensure a ready, capable Air Force at scale. Though service leaders have long maintained that the Air Force needs to acquire at least 72 new fighters per year to ensure air superiority in combat, this year’s budget funds a mere 45—the fewest in years. At the same time, the budget seeks to divest all162 remaining A-10 aircraft before replacements arrive. Airmen will seek employment elsewhere, at a time when we badly need their services to meet burgeoning mission demand.

The budget cancels the E-7 in favor of space-based capabilities that do not yet exist in operational form, and will probably will not appear until the mid-2030s. We’ve seen this before: Seven years after the Air Force cancelled the E-8 JSTARS in 2018, its space-based successor solution has yet to emerge. These gaps are risk decimating the air battle manager career field.

Training is another problem area. The budget retires 35 T-1s, but only buys 14 T-7s. This is a complex issue given delays in the T-7 program, but the net effect is a downsizing of the training inventory at a time when the service wrestles with the long-standing pilot training shortfall and the advanced age of the T-38.Likewise, the budget plan calls for cutting 14 C-130s while buying zero replacements. And this comes at a time when we know Pacific operations demand more airlift, not less.

The impact of these cuts is clear. Fighter bases now lack aircraft, most notably Kadena Air Base, Japan—our primary air base in the Pacific. Tinker Air Force base in Oklahoma has seen its inventory of E-3s cut in half. At Robins Air Force Base, Ga., where the E-8 JSTARS made its last flight in 2023, aircrews wait for space-based battle management capabilities to come online. They have zero operational capability at their home station.

One B-2 bomber—which was part of the decoy force launched as part of the Iran strike—is marooned in Hawaii. It made an emergency landing due to a mechanical issue. Thirty-year-old aircraft break and Airmen are growing fed up, fueling a chronic pilot shortfall.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin has repeatedly warned that the nation “needs more Air Force.” Congress should heed his warning.

America faces severe threats around the globe. As the famous movie “The Right Stuff” declares: “No bucks, no Buck Rogers. Whoever gets the funding gets the technology. Whoever gets the technology stays on top.” A robust Air Force is the key to staying on top. Congress must override the Pentagon’s dangerous cuts and fund the Air Force America needs to fly, fight and win.