Military air traffic controller shortages hinder homeland defense, IG says

Lower pay and outdated standards are making it hard to fill military air traffic controller positions, causing shortages that could undermine the defense of American airspace, a government watchdog agency found.

The shortage hinders the military’s ability to meet the 2026 National Defense Strategy’s priority of defending the homeland, which includes countering the threat of unmanned aircraft, according to a Department of Defense Office of Inspector General report issued Tuesday.

Civilian air traffic controllers working for the military services are typically paid much less than their counterparts at the Federal Aviation Administration, making it hard to recruit and retain qualified people, the IG found.

Conducted over 10 months starting in July 2025, the evaluation found that the lack of air traffic controllers has led to limited airfield hours, reduced airspace availability and forced closures that have delayed pilot training.

At Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, home to a special operations wing, “shortages created risks to aircraft and airfield maintenance and caused overseas mission delays,” the IG said.

A civilian air traffic controller gives a tour of the control tower at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, on Aug. 29, 2024. The Defense Department is is having difficulty filling air traffic controller positions due in part to low salary offerings, hindering the military’s ability to defend America’s skies and counter drone threats, according to a DOD inspector general report issued on July 21, 2026. (Gabriel Jones/U.S. Air Force)

Air traffic controllers help ensure the safe, orderly and efficient movement of aircraft in flight and at airports, often operating under considerable stress.

While the FAA controls the bulk of the air traffic activities in the U.S., the Defense Department controls a sizable chunk of nearly 30%, Air Force officials told the IG.

The FAA is the biggest competitor for the military’s talent, according to the review, which comes as both face shortages of qualified controllers. It also comes as controllers face increased traffic and greater complexity.

One-fifth of the Air Force’s 913 authorized air traffic control positions are vacant, according to the report, and about 7% of its controllers are eligible for retirement. Data for the other services were withheld from the public version of the report.

Meanwhile, the FAA has also been trying to boost its air traffic controller workforce, which shrank by about 6% over the past decade, despite about a 10% increase in flights during roughly the same period, the Government Accountability Office said in December.

Part of the challenge is that only about 2 in 100 applicants make it through the rigorous pipeline to become certified air traffic controllers, a process that can take two to six years to complete, the GAO found. The finding was based on data from 2017-2022.

There is no centralized DOD organization for managing the services’ air traffic control workforce, but the Department of the Air Force has led the functional community established in 2024 to speak for those in the civilian air operations field.

The pay discrepancy is due in part to an outdated standard for military air traffic controllers that no longer applies to their FAA counterparts.

The Office of Personnel Management issued the standard in 1978, decades before the military hired its first civilian controllers.

The guidance, used to set pay grades, does not line up with the complexities and workloads DOD controllers encounter today, such as dealing with various drones and complex runway configurations, officials told the IG.

A joint service effort that proposed an extensive revision in 2022 was scuttled. Meanwhile, the FAA has been exempted from using the standard since 1996, when Congress let it create its own personnel management system.

As a result, the average civilian Air Force controller earns about 43% less in total compensation than the average FAA controller, according to a Rand Corp. study published in March.

Rand also found that the military struggled to recruit controllers because its airfields tend to be more remote, with fewer amenities and more challenges related to medical care, jobs and educational opportunities for family members.

In addition to the wage disparity, the IG also found that the pay grade guidance was inconsistently applied.

The upshot was that controllers at the service’s busiest airfield, Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, were graded one or two levels below those at a Georgia airfield that saw lower traffic counts and less complex operations.

Similarly, all six controllers at Naval Air Station Norfolk in Virginia were one or two pay grades above the 16 controllers at Randolph, though the naval airfield handled about one-fourth the volume of air traffic.

That meant differences of tens of thousands of dollars in yearly pay, according to a Stars and Stripes review of federal pay scales.

In response to the IG report, defense officials agreed to work with the Office of Personnel Management to develop a plan for updating the grade determination guidance and said they will take steps to ensure the services consistently apply such guidance.

Pentagon officials will also consider seeking legislative action to give the services more flexibility in recruiting and retaining air traffic control specialists, upon the IG’s recommendation.