Air Force revokes 135 promotions after scoring error

The U.S. Air Force has revoked 135 promotions to technical sergeant after discovering a scoring error on a required promotion exam, a mistake that will simultaneously grant promotions to 135 other airmen who were initially denied. The service announced the error earlier this week, describing it as an isolated and unprecedented human error that affected only security forces personnel.

The issue was discovered after the promotion list for the 2026 cycle was released. An enlisted promotions team member at the Air Force Personnel Center identified that an outdated answer key had been used to score the Specialty Knowledge Test for the security forces career field. This led to 27 questions being graded incorrectly. In response, officials rescored all 2,285 promotion-eligible exams in that specialty.

The rescoring confirmed that 451 of the originally selected airmen legitimately qualified and will keep their promotions. However, 135 airmen who had been notified of their selection fell below the corrected cutoff score and will have their promotions revoked. Another 135 airmen, who were initially passed over, will now be promoted in their place. The total number of promotions for the...