How Air Force Assault Cases Ended in 2022

Trends › By Offense › Article 128 › Air Force, 2022

Based on 49 cases · 2022 · Air Force records · data updated October 24, 2026

Fewer Contested Cases Than the Service Average

Assault cases in 2022 ended in guilty pleas more often than the typical Air Force court-martial. Of the 49 cases, 30 were guilty pleas and 19 were contested. A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge, either by a full not-guilty plea or a mixed plea.

The contested share was 39%, lower than the 47% for all Air Force cases in 2022. It was also lower than the 42% in 2021.

A partial acquittal is a finding of not guilty on at least one charge or specification and guilty on another. 8 of the 19 contested cases ended in a partial acquittal (42%).

More Punitive Discharges Than the Service Rate

A punitive discharge, meaning a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge for enlisted members, followed 66% of enlisted convictions: 18 bad-conduct and 13 dishonorable. Across all Air Force cases that year, the rate was 59%.

For officers, the equivalent is dismissal. Both of the 2 convicted officers or warrant officers in this group were dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge can still be followed by an administrative separation, which these records do not track.

How Much Confinement Was Adjudged?

Of 49 convictions, 47 included confinement. The median term was 6 months, the same as the median for the whole Air Force in 2022. These figures are adjudged sentences, the terms announced at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence covers every charge in the case, not the assault alone.

By band, 21 convictions (43%) were under 6 months, about the same as the 46% service-wide. Another 11 (22%) were between 6 months and 1 year, higher than the 16% Air Force figure. Only 2 convictions (4%) included no confinement, compared with 10% across the service.

Sentences Over One Year

Sentences longer than one year were about as common here as in the Air Force overall: 15 of 49 convictions (31%), compared with 28%. Of those, 10 were between 1 and 5 years and 5 were 5 years or more.

Only a general court-martial can adjudge confinement of more than one year or a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial is capped at one year. The 36 general courts-martial in this group had a median term of 9 months, and 42% were contested. The 13 special courts-martial had a median of 4 months, and 31% were contested. General courts-martial made up 73% of these assault cases.

Assault Was Usually Charged With Other Offenses

In 28 of the 49 cases, at least one other article was charged with Article 128. The most common additional charge was Article 120 (sexual assault), in 10 cases. Article 92 (orders violation) and Article 112a (drug) each appeared in 7, Article 115 (communicating threats) in 6, and Article 134 (general article) in 4.

When an assault charge is filed with a sexual assault or domestic violence charge, it can describe part of the same event. The sentence then covers the whole case. This is one reason assault sentences vary so widely.

Military Judge or Panel?

The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. A military judge alone heard 34 of the 49 cases. Members heard the other 15: 11 enlisted panels and 4 officer panels. That is 31% of cases, about the same as the 32% Air Force rate.

Members heard most of the contested cases: 15 of 19 (79%). Most judge-alone cases are guilty pleas, so the forum figures mostly follow how many cases were contested.

Compared With 2021

There were 55 assault cases in 2021 and 49 in 2022. The median confinement went from 8 months to 6 months. The share of convictions with any confinement went from 85% to 96%. Punitive discharges for enlisted members were 67% and then 66%, about the same. The general court-martial share went from 65% to 73%. With groups this small, a few cases can change these numbers, so the changes show direction more than precision.

Who Was Accused, and Where

The accused included 28 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4), 19 NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 2 officers or warrant officers. That rank makeup is similar to all Air Force cases in 2022, where 58% were junior enlisted.

Hill AFB, Utah tried the most assault cases, with 5. Robins AFB, Georgia tried 3. Eglin AFB, Florida; Spangdahlem AB, Germany; and Kirtland AFB, New Mexico tried 2 each. Those five bases account for 29% of the total. Larger installations try more cases of every type, so a count alone says little about any one base.

What the Records Do Not Show

Air Force records rarely list the charges when a case ends in full acquittal. An acquittal rate for assault would therefore understate acquittals, and it is not given here. The records give trial dates rather than offense dates. They omit plea agreement terms and evidence. They also leave out assaults handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative action.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 128 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.

Compare: federal court. Aggravated Assault: Federal Sentences vs. Air Force Courts-Martial, 2016–2025

About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.