An airman poses for a photograph holding a technical sergeant stripe. (Mark Herlihy/U.S. Air Force)
More than 100 Air Force staff sergeants who thought they had been promoted won’t advance after officials uncovered a scoring error on a key advancement test.
The Air Force announced Tuesday that 135 security forces airmen will be removed from the 2026 technical sergeant promotion list after an enlisted promotions team member discovered an outdated scoring key had been used for the Specialty Knowledge Test. The error caused 27 test questions to be graded incorrectly.
The promotion team then recalculated the scores of more than 2,000 security forces airmen who competed for promotion. After the re-score, officials determined that a different group of 135 staff sergeants should have been promoted. Those airmen are expected to be notified next week.
The security forces career field had 586 promotion slots this cycle.
“We owe it to those affected to address it immediately,” Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force David R. Wolfe said in a statement. “This is going to be hard for everyone impacted.”
The Air Force said no artificial intelligence products were involved in the error, which it attributed to human error.
The service recently promoted more than 6,500 staff sergeants to technical sergeant in the 2026 promotion cycle. The mistake affected only the security forces career field.
Air Education and Training Command and Air Force Personnel Center have strengthened their internal processes, according to the Air Force. A review is underway.
“We owe it to our airmen to own the mistake and to take the necessary actions to not only make it right today, but to prevent future issues,” Wolfe said.
Security forces serves as the Air Force’s military police. Often identified by their dark blue berets, they are responsible for base defense, law enforcement and the protection of high-value assets, including aircraft and nuclear weapons.
