Main Engine Cut Off

In her final two weeks in office, Wilson and Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein are expected to roll out a plan to introduce a new promotion system that breaks up the pool of eligible officers into six “competitive categories” — air operations and special warfare; nuclear and missile operations; space operations; information warfare; combat support; and force modernization.

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Having a competitive category for space would effectively create an Air Force space corps, and officers would only compete against space officers for promotions. In the current line of the Air Force system, pilots generally get higher ratings because promotion boards tend to reward officers who commanded units in the field and had multiple combat deployments.

This would be first major change to the Air Force’s personnel system since the service was created in 1947.