One in Five Eligible Airmen Promoted to Master Sergeant in 2026

Nearly 4,500 Airmen are set to promote to master sergeant and join the senior noncommissioned officer corps in 2026, the Air Force Personnel Center announced June 1.

Officials selected 4,475 technical sergeants for promotion out of a pool of 21,552 candidates, putting the selection rate at 20.76 percent.

The full list of those promoted will be released on AFPC’s website on June 4 at 9 a.m. Eastern time.

Airmen typically spend about 14 years in uniform before reaching the rank of master sergeant. The jump is a significant one; E-7s serve as technical experts who start to move away from frontline supervision into higher-level managerial roles.

Both the number of those promoted and the selection rate for 2026 are down compared to 2025, when 6,043 Airmen were selected at a rate of 23.42 percent.

The volume of promotions for E-7 have ebbed and flowed over the past decade-plus. From 2015-2020, officials selected at least 4,600 new master sergeants every year and the rate never dipped below 20 percent. From 2021-2024, the total number of promotions stayed relatively steady, but the selection rate was below 20 percent as the pool of eligible technical sergeants increased, reaching a maximum of 29,497 Airmen in 2024, the highest total in years.

Now, it appears the pool is shrinking is once more—in just two cycles, the number of those eligible has gone down nearly 27 percent. Those numbers are affected by retention and force-shaping. Back in April, Deputy Chief of Staff for manpower, personnel, and services Lt. Gen. Caroline Miller told lawmakers that Air Force retention was hovering around historical norms at 90 percent.

Master sergeant is the second senior NCO rank in the 2026 promotion cycle. The Air Force announced in March it is promoting 11.07 percent of eligible master sergeants to senior master sergeant. Like master sergeant promotions, this was a decline from the previous cycle that snapped a multiyear streak of increasing promotions and rates.

Promotions for technical sergeant are coming next—the Air Force Personnel Center typically announces those in mid- to late-June, a few weeks after master sergeant promotions.