Aviator, Missileer Cancer Rates Get Renewed Attention on Capitol Hill

Congressional lawmakers are pushing for expanded new studies on elevated cancer rates among military aviators, as attention to the problem is surging once more in Washington and beyond.

One legislative provision already passed and another under consideration on Capitol Hill call for studies of cancer in the fixed-wing and rotary-wing military aviation communities. These come after studies in 2021 and 2023 found that aircrews were up to 24 percent more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than the comparable U.S. civilian population.

The research could lead to greater safety protocols for American troops who are routinely exposed to carcinogens and may make it easier for service members to prove their cancer diagnosis is connected to their time in uniform—a requirement for unlocking disability benefits through the Department of Veteran Affairs. 

On July 21, Congress passed the Aviators Cancer Examination Study (ACES) Act, which prompts the nonprofit National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to use VA and Pentagon data to determine how often active-duty military aircrews are diagnosed with cancer and how often their cases are fatal.

Pilots, navigators, weapons system and aircraft system operators, and any other crew members who regularly flew in fixed-wing aircraft—like loadmasters or medics—would be considered under the study.

Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), the bill’s co-sponsor and an Air Force Reserve colonel, shepherded the legislation through Congress in honor of his friend Andy Shurtleff, a retired colonel who died of cancer in May at age 48 following a two-decade career as an Air Force fighter pilot.

“The ACES Act is more than just a bill—it’s a lifeline and a message to every pilot who has ever put on the uniform to protect our skies that we will fight to protect them in return,” Pfluger said in a statement following the bill’s passage by voice vote. “We owe our service members nothing less.”

Pfluger, who had introduced the bill twice before, partnered with Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) on the House legislation and Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on its Senate counterpart. The Senate advanced the ACES Act in June.

The legislation now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature. Neither Pfluger’s office nor the White House answered by press time when Trump is expected to enact the bill.

Another similar study may soon follow—language launching a study of cancer in the rotary-wing community is tacked onto the House version of the 2026 defense policy bill, which is waiting for a vote from the full chamber.

The Military Aviator Coalition for Health, an advocacy group, touted both studies in a social media post after the ACES Act passed.

“Our work is not done, continued action is needed—including the rotary wing cancer study and support for other impacted military families,” the group posted. “But today, we CELEBRATE.”

The Rotary-wing Operator Toxic Occupational Research (ROTOR) Act directs the Pentagon’s Defense Health Agency, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Cancer Institute to determine whether aviators who work with helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft are diagnosed with a range of cancers at a higher rate than the general population.

If enacted, the study’s findings are due within a year after the bill becomes law.

Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), a former CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter pilot in the Marine Corps who went on to work as a Navy physician, kept the provision separate from the ACES Act to avoid skewing the study’s findings with data from helicopter and tiltrotor aircraft personnel, who fly at lower altitudes and with different equipment than fighter and other fixed-wing fleets, a House staffer told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

But similar concerns about the effects of long-term exposure to military equipment persist. For instance, the staffer said, the study should consider how sitting underneath the Longbow fire-control radar for hours impacts the Army’s Apache pilots.

While it’s unclear how many people the study may ultimately include, it covers all rotary-wing pilots and aviation support staff who served in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force after Feb. 28, 1961.

The staffer said there’s quiet optimism that the results of both studies could lead to further congressional action. But they mused that such legislation would need to be on the scale of the PACT Act, which took decades of advocacy to expand care and benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances before it became law in 2022.

The British military is in the midst of its own reckoning with military service-connected cancer as well. At least 180 current and former British military aircrews are looking to sue the Ministry of Defence for damages related to cancer diagnoses they argue stem from years of breathing toxic helicopter fumes, the BBC reported July 2. 

One law firm told the BBC it is pursuing claims related to four military aircraft: the Sea King, the Wessex, and the Puma, all of which are retired, plus the Chinook, which is still flown by the U.S. and several foreign allies. Troops who worked on the aircraft have contracted lung, throat, testicular, and rare blood cancers, the BBC reported.

The MOD said it is monitoring whether engine exhaust poses a health risk to troops and is trying to determine how many aviators have been diagnosed with cancer.

Congress may also pursue more data on the link between cancer and work in the nuclear missile community. An amendment to the House’s annual defense policy bill calls for the National Academies to independently review the findings of the Air Force’s missile community cancer study as well as to run its own study of the occupational health and safety hazards facing Airmen at Minuteman III missile facilities. Those findings are due 18 months after the bill becomes law.

A complementary provision in the Senate’s version of the bill would require the Air Force to deep clean the underground crew capsules where Airmen operate ground-based nuclear weapons in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Colorado every five years. The scrubs would continue until the launch control centers are decommissioned as the new Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missiles replace the Minuteman III fleet in the coming years.

Those hardened bunkers received their first intensive cleaning in 2014 after decades of around-the-clock use. A 2023 review of potential carcinogens at ICBM facilities also recommended each launch control facility be deep cleaned.

The Air Force expects this year to wrap up a multipart study of whether the nuclear missile community is at higher risk of contracting non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and 13 other cancers. In June, officials released new data showing those troops face slightly elevated cancer risk compared to all Americans.