Within two years, the U.S. Air Force will stand up a new career field to defend American air bases worldwide.
Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Ken Wilsbach announced Monday at the Air and Space Cyber Conference that the service is advancing two initiatives in the wake of devastating Iranian attacks on U.S. bases across the Middle East in recent months.
“First,” said Wilsbach, “we will establish the point defense weapons system, bringing together kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities to secure our air bases.”
“Second,” he continued, “we established a new career field of point defense airmen. This new career field will be operational in two years.”
Two airmen, Senior Master Sgt. Andrew Lewis and Senior Master Sgt. Brandon Spears, are the first field managers within that career track, Wilsbach added.
While details regarding the new career field are sparse, a June 2026 release notes that these specialized units will include units drawn from multiple career fields operating at select Air Force installations.
The need for base defenses in light of the Iran war has become imperative.
Far from isolated, America’s sprawling — and easy-to-find — Middle East footprint has been repeatedly subjected to assault since the start of the Iran war. In July, three U.S. soldiers were killed when an Iranian ballistic missile and drone attack penetrated air defenses around Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. Six U.S. soldiers were killed in March when an Iranian drone struck a tactical operations center at Port Shuaiba, Kuwait.
“For 20 years we didn’t have to worry about anything coming out of the sky, and we lost proficiency that I think we had trained in the Cold War era — through the ’80s and ’90s — where we were worried about adversaries who had fixed-wing aircraft and the capability to send long-range precision fires at us,” Lt. Gen. James P. Isenhower, the commanding general of CAC, told reporters during a Pentagon briefing last Thursday. “That wasn’t the case in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Now, with precise, long-range missile and drone assaults blowing “the hell” out of bases like Bahrain, with its latest initiatives, the U.S. Air Force is rapidly seeking to contend with the ever-evolving threats from the enemy.
Eve Sampson contributed to this report.
Claire Barrett is an editor and military history correspondent for Military Times. She is also a World War II researcher with an unparalleled affinity for Sir Winston Churchill and Michigan football.
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