The Department of the Air Force hit its 2025 goal of recruiting new airmen and Space Force Guardians three months ahead of schedule, the latest service branch to turn the tide from a post-pandemic slump.
Military.com reported earlier this month that the Department of the Air Force was set to hit its goal by the end of the month. On Monday, the Air Force and Space Force announced their recruiting success in a news release.
"I am excited that both the Air Force and the Space Force have met their fiscal year 2025 recruiting goals three months early," Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said in a news release. "Congratulations to the recruiting service on ensuring we have the best talent ready to join the Department of the Air Force and defend this great nation."
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The Air Force and Space Force announced they had hit their recruiting targets shortly after the Navy and the Army had reached their benchmarks for bringing in new sailors and soldiers. In recent years, the services had all been down to the wire, often just barely hitting their goals before the end of the fiscal year. It was not immediately clear where the Marines were with their current recruiting numbers.
It's a notable turnaround for the service branches after many either missed or just barely hit their recruiting goals during a recruiting slump following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Air Force, for example, had missed its goal in 2023 for the first time since the 1990s.
Taren Sylvester, a research assistant for the National Security Human Capital Program at the Center for a New American Security think tank, told Military.com on Monday that it marks the first time since 2018 that the services hit their goals, but it's too soon to tell the cause of the recent trends.
"The change we're seeing now is too early to tell whether or not the administration change is really the driving force behind it," Sylvester said, saying various initiatives and changes that have encouraged people to meet the necessary military standards are a key player. "It's a lot of different work in the recruiting forces and in how recruiting is set up that is making an impact today."
The Department of the Air Force officially hit its fiscal 2025 goals on June 27 and has "sent nearly 25,000 of the 30,000 contracted recruits to Basic Military Training," with the rest scheduled to be sent by the end of September.
Military.com previously reported that the Air Force did have to reduce its recruiting goals by roughly 3,000 airmen due to an ongoing continuing resolution -- a stopgap congressional measure put in place instead of an annual budget that holds funding to the same amount as the year prior.
The Air Force had started to turn the tide from its historic goal slip in 2023 by hiring more recruiters, changing policies such as body fat percentage allowed and tattoo restrictions, as well as substantially growing its Delayed Entry Program, which now stands at more than 14,000 recruits.
By comparison, the Space Force never had an issue with recruiting its relatively small and highly specialized force. Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John Bentivegna told Military.com in an emailed statement that he was proud of the recruiters' efforts in bringing in the latest Guardians.
"Thanks to their efforts, we're proud to welcome the newest Guardians into our ranks as they lead the Space Force into the future," Bentivegna said. "Each one reflects the very best of our nation, and their decision to serve speaks volumes about the talent, drive and potential they bring to our mission."
In statistics from last month shared with Military.com, the average age of the latest Guardian recruits is just shy of 23 years old, and upward of 93% of them scored above average on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test. One in five holds a college degree as well.
While Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been quick to attribute the recruiting successes to the change in presidential administrations, experts have told Military.com for years that the effects are most likely due to numerous long-standing policy changes in the wake of the pandemic.
But some services are also directly claiming President Donald Trump is the reason for the shift.
The Navy announced June 18 that it was set to send more than 40,600 future sailors to Recruit Training Command by September.
While the Navy pointed to "the Future Sailor Preparatory Course to improve accession success, streamlined medical waiver reviews, and identified and removed barriers to recruiter productivity" as reasons for hitting the goal early, Secretary of the Navy John Phelan also praised Trump.
"The world is more complex and contested than it has been in decades, and our ability to respond starts with our greatest asset, our people," Phelan said in a news release. "Since November, Navy recruiting has skyrocketed, a testament to President Trump's leadership and the dedication of our dynamic Navy recruiters."
Earlier this month, the Army also reached its annual goal of recruiting 61,000 active-duty soldiers.
