As the Air Force begins setting up its first five Deployable Combat Wings, it is seeking volunteers to join these foundational units, Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin announced in an email to Airmen on March 25.
Allvin said assignment opportunities for certain career fields within the five new wings are posted to the Air Force’s internal “talent marketplace,” and that officers have until April 2 to apply. Enlisted members will be able to volunteer from April 4 to May 14.
The five wings, which will begin a workup cycle and deploy about 18 months after forming, will be located at:
- Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark.
- Moody Air Force Base, Ga.
- Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho
- Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.
- Shaw Air Force Base, S.C.
Most of those bases host fighter units, though Little Rock is primarily an airlift hub. Seymour Johnson is the only one that currently hosts an Air Task Force, the most recent precursor to Deployable Combat Wings.
Allvin and Air Force leaders plan to have 24 Deployable Combat Wings across the force, including Active, Guard, and Reserve units, which will all train and deploy together from their home installation—a radical change from the service’s current piecemeal approach to deployments.
DCWs were introduced conceptually a year ago as part of the Department of the Air Force’s “Re-Optimization for Great Power Competition” initiative, but planning was far enough along that the change was not subject to the pause imposed last month by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who wanted those initiatives to be reviewed by the administration’s new Secretary of the Air Force.
Allvin said the first five “unit type codes” for Deployable Combat Wings were approved before the pause was put in place. UTCs are codes that define the capabilities of Air Force units.
By volunteering, Airmen will be funded to move to their new bases, Allvin wrote. Volunteers and those assigned to the units will go through the full force generation cycle together—participating in training, exercises, and deployments as one unit.
“This is your chance to shape the future of airpower and warfighting,” Allvin wrote. “We need Airmen who are ready to embrace this challenge, strengthen our warrior ethos, and build the next generation of Air Force deployments.”
The journey to creating DCWs has been a long one. Since the Global War on Terror era began, Airmen have deployed as individuals or in small groups to large central bases in the Middle East, where most met their team and learned to work together on the fly. In recent years, the service has introduced interim solutions, first Expeditionary Air Bases, and more recently Air Task Forces—units that pull Airmen from fewer bases and units, and that work to train at least sometimes together before deployments begin.
Deployable Combat Wings are the final step in that transformation.
The last of six Air Task Forces stood up in October 2024, and one deployed for an exercise in Korea this month. By the time the six ATFs finish their force generation cycle in the fall of 2026—the start of fiscal 2027—leaders want to have the first Deployable Combat Wings ready to deploy.