The Air Force has met its annual goal for signing up new recruits five months ahead of schedule, service officials said. As of this week, officials said, recruiters had already landed commitments from more than 32,750 recruits, the service’s target for the full 2026 fiscal year, which runs until Sept. 30.
In hitting those numbers, the service brought in more recruits than last year without reducing its annual goals, as it did in 2025.
The Space Force, which falls under the Department of the Air Force, also met its recruiting goal of 730 guardians ahead of time, according to the Air Force.
So far, the two services have sent roughly 25,000 active-duty recruits to basic training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, with the rest expected to start by Sept, 30, an Air Force news release says.
Top Stories This Week
The service also said a total of 18,000 airmen and guardians are in the Delayed Entry Program, or DEP. Under the program, potential recruits can wait up to a year before shipping to basic training, although the average wait time is closer to 4 months, according to the Air Force.
“The Air Force and Space Force continue to set records, build momentum, and consistently exceed their recruiting goals,” Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said in a statement. “By reaching our annual target five months early and maintaining the largest DEP in over a decade, we are seeing a truly inspiring pipeline of dedicated volunteers who are eager for their chance to serve. Now, we take up the task of growing them, training them, and maintaining that talent across the services.”
The Space Force has consistently met its annual recruiting goals since becoming an independent military branch in 2019, the news release says.
After missing its fiscal year 2023 recruiting goal, the Air Force added 400 new positions to its recruiting corps and changed how it trains its recruiters, Brig. Gen. Jeffrey W. Nelson, commander of the Air Force Accessions Center and the Air Force Recruiting Service, told Task & Purpose in September.
Those changes to the training recruiters receive at their initial school, and their units, were meant to ensure they have all the skills they need, such as being able to recognize the unique aspects of the areas of the country to where they are assigned, Nelson said.
The Air Force – along with other military services experienced a recruiting slump a few years ago when it fell short of its fiscal year 2023 goal, marking the first time the service had missed its recruiting target since 1999. However, the service met its recruiting goal the following year.
The bounceback continued into fiscal year 2025 when the Air Force again met its recruiting goals. But those goals were reduced by 3,000 recruits due to budget delays.
The Air Force began this fiscal year, which started on Oct. 1, with 19,000 potential recruits already in the Delayed Entry Program. That represented 58% of the service’s annual recruiting goal for non-prior service enlistments, the highest number of recruits in the program since the Air Force began keeping records on it in 2012, service officials told Task & Purpose in September.
The Air Force is also offering qualified recruits bonuses of up to $40,000 to sign up for active-duty service, especially for critical jobs in maintenance, cyber, and special operations, according to the service.
