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Posted on 09/17/2026 7:56:37 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
About 245 Air Force members now hold a rank the service eliminated in 1980.
The Air Force spent 45 years without warrant officers, the last one retiring in 1980 and the ranks disappearing from an Air Force that decided senior NCOs and commissioned officers could cover the same ground. That changed in February 2024, when then-Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall announced that the ranks were coming back.
The service has about 245 warrant officers as of September 2026, in ranks ranging from Chief Warrant Officer 1 to Chief Warrant Officer 5 at multiple commands, an Air Force spokesperson told Military.com.
Why the Air Force Brought the Rank Back
Kendall framed the decision around a specific gap: As the Air Force reoriented itself toward what it called great power competition — meaning direct peer conflict with a country such as China — it needed people who were purely technical experts, sitting outside the normal path of command authority that officers carry and outside the people-leadership lane senior NCOs are built around.
"We need operational units with all the capabilities they need to deter and compete with our pacing challenges and ready to enter a conflict on short or no notice,” Kendall said in a February 2024 announcement. “In those units we need the right mix of skills necessary for high end combat and to ensure technological superiority, particularly in information technology and cyber.”
The Air Force and Space Force were the only two branches without warrant officers; the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard had all kept theirs the entire time. Then-Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin was explicit in 2024 that the return would start narrow: cyber and information technology only.
Standing It Up in Under a Year
Airmen at staff sergeant and above became eligible to apply...
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
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The way the title was written I thought they were bringing back 80 year old Warrants.
Me too
True journalism is dead.
The WOs are all in intelligence and data systems. So far, none have been appointed in any other technical fields such as maintenance, munitions, combat support etc.
It is hard, no, impossible for the most part to have technical prowess within the officer corps when the plan is to move every less than three years. Sometimes that gap is filled now using full time reserve officers, a pathway not for everyone but one that does allow them to become extremely proficient in certain areas and develop a presence of deep experience that the organization benefits from.
Does that describe a Warrant Officer?
Good idea.
Yes. Once I made E-7 in USAF, I had to take Special Duty and Joint Assignments to keep hands on. The USAF wanted to make me a Supervisor/Manager - a frickin’ paper pusher... Wish they never got rid of Warrants...
Me too! English is a second language writer?
That was my point.
Huh?! Move every WHAT? Are you talking about being "re-deployed" every 3 years, or what?
Regards,
I enlisted into the AF in 1974 and met some unique people from the WWII era.
My first commander was a Colonel who was a former B-17 pilot and had only a high school education and even more unique I met a AF Warrant Officer and a Colonel wearing glider pilot wings.
We had a WO in charge of our Electronics PMEL Unit in the Marines.
He looked like and reminded me of Tim Conway, on teh Carol Burnette Show, even acted like him.
One morning he came to work on his brand new Harley motorcycle and forgot to put the kickstand down........
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