Air Force cancels promotions for 135 sergeants after testing error

Just before the long July 4th weekend, 586 Air Force staff sergeants in the service’s largest career field were told they were being promoted, a moment that is traditionally a cause for celebration in every corner of the military. Beaming commanders shook their hands in happy ceremonies. Some units held parties with balloons and cakes, some decorated with the 5-striped chevrons of a technical sergeant, the rank the airmen had earned.

On Tuesday, the Air Force said 135 of those promotions have been canceled.

According to promotion officials, a written promotion test taken earlier this year by staff sergeants in the security forces career field — the largest job in the Air Force — was graded incorrectly. Those incorrect scores inadvertently ranked 135 staff sergeants too high among the more than 2,000 security forces airmen competing for promotion to technical sergeant.

Using that list, the top 586 security forces staff sergeants were told they had been selected for promotion, including the 135 with inflated scores.

When tests were regraded, Air Force officials said Tuesday, the reshuffled order bumped those 135 airmen out of the promotion range and their promotions have now been canceled. A different 135 security forces staff sergeants, whose corrected test scores moved them up in the rankings, will now get those promotions.

“Preserving the integrity of the promotion system, the enlisted promotion team conducted a full re-score,” Air Force officials said in a press release. “The result established a new, correct promotion cut-off, identifying the rightful earners for promotion and those whose line numbers will be revoked.”

Officials with the Air Force Personnel Center said in the release that “the error was an isolated and highly unprecedented anomaly” that affected only security forces, whose troops the Air Force calls Defenders. The error, the release said, was not due to AI. “No artificial intelligence products were used in the erroneous promotion cycle process; it was the result of human error.”

“We owe it to those affected to address it immediately,” said Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force David R. Wolfe. “This is going to be hard for everyone impacted.”

Error hits Air Force’s largest career field

Roughly one in every seven members of the Air Force serves in security forces, whose 43,000 Defenders are nearly all enlisted. Security forces are charged with all aspects of base security and on-base law enforcement. Airmen in the job wear distinctive dark blue berets and are ubiquitous at every Air Force base and installation around the world, often serving as “the face” of an installation at the front gates and in interactions with civilian agencies.

The testing error applied to current staff sergeants in the job seeking promotion to technical sergeant. A promotion to technical sergeant in the Air Force is often the ticket for an airman to serve a full 20 years in uniform, allowing them to retire with full benefits.

For promotions, airmen compete for limited advancement slots against peers within their career, with a heavy emphasis placed on a written test known as the Specialty Knowledge Test, or SKT. As a result, SKTs for every Air Force job and rank are different and graded seperately.

During the 2026 cycle, 2,285 security forces staff sergeants took the SKT. But officials say they discovered afterwards that the answer key used to grade those tests incorrectly scored 27 questions.

The 135 security forces airmen now in line for the promotion will be informed next week, the Air Force said, as part of a “supplemental promotion release.”

The Air Force said steps were being taken “to mitigate the possibility of similar errors in the future.” Grading and ranking systems, the release said, will get “a thorough review” along with “implementing quality-assurance safeguards to prevent this specific point of failure in future promotion release cycles.”

“We promote Airmen based on merit, which is established in federal law and policy,” said Lt. Gen. Jefferson O’Donnell, deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel, and services. “We have a core obligation to ensure the airmen who earned it are selected.”