US Air Force to create new specialty to protect air bases within two years — Defense News
The US Air Force plans to launch a new military specialty within two years to protect American air bases in different countries around the world. US Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach said this at the Air and Space Cyber conference, Defense News reports.
Base defense system
According to Wilsbach, the US Air Force is pursuing two initiatives simultaneously. The first involves creating a point-defense weapons system that will combine kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities to protect air bases.
The second initiative is to establish a separate specialty for service members responsible for point defense. The general said the new specialty should become operational within two years. Senior Master Sgts. Andrew Lewis and Brandon Spears became the first managers of this field.
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Units of specialists from different fields
There are still few details about the structure of the new specialty. A US Air Force statement released in June 2026 said that specialized units would include service members from several professional fields. Such units will operate at individual US Air Force facilities.
The initiative was announced after Iran's attacks on US bases in the Middle East. In July, three US service members were killed in a missile-and-drone attack that breached air defenses around Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. In March, according to the publication, an Iranian drone attacked a tactical operations center in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, killing six US service members.
Gen. Lt. James P. Eisenhower, commander of Air Combat Command, said US forces had not faced the need to counter threats from the air for 20 years. According to him, as a result, they lost some of the skills they had practiced during the Cold War.
