Air Force Article 128 Cases in 2025

Trends › By Offense › Article 128 › Air Force, 2025

Based on 25 cases · 2025 · Air Force records · data updated October 24, 2026

Fewer Contested Cases

The largest change in 2025 was in pleas. Of the 20 assault cases with a plea on record, 16 were guilty pleas and 4 were contested. A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge.

The contested share was 20%, lower than the 48% in 2024 and the 41% for all Air Force cases in 2025. The records show the change but cannot explain it. With only 25 cases, a few pleas can change the percentage by a large amount.

Few Panels

Few cases were contested, and members decided guilt in few cases. The accused usually chooses between a military judge alone and a panel of members. A military judge alone heard 22 cases, and the other 3 were heard by enlisted panels. No officer panel heard an assault case this year. Members heard 12% of the cases with a forum listed. Most judge-alone cases are guilty pleas, so the forum figures tend to follow the plea figures.

Sentences in the Middle Range

Confinement was part of 95% of the 20 convictions. The median term was 7 months, compared with 6 months for all Air Force cases in 2025. These are adjudged sentences, as announced at trial and before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and they cover every charge in each case.

Terms of 6 months to 1 year were more common: 30% of convictions here (6 cases), compared with 18% service-wide. Terms under 6 months made up 45%, about the same as the Air Force's 43%. Only 1 conviction included no confinement.

No Terms of 5 Years or More

Sentences longer than one year were imposed in 4 of 20 convictions (20%), compared with 27% Air Force-wide. All 4 were between 1 and 5 years. None was 5 years or more, compared with 11% of all Air Force convictions.

Confinement over one year is possible only at a general court-martial. A special court-martial is capped at one year and cannot adjudge a dishonorable discharge. The 11 general courts-martial here had a median of 1 year, and the 14 special courts-martial had a median of 4 months. General courts-martial made up 44% of these cases, compared with 51% across the Air Force.

Discharges

Of 19 convicted enlisted members, 9 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (47%), and 2 of those were dishonorable. The Air Force rate for 2025 was 60%. The records also include 1 convicted officer or warrant officer, and none was dismissed. Dismissal is the officer form of a punitive discharge.

A sentence without a punitive discharge does not settle a member's status. An administrative separation can still follow, and those actions are not in this data.

Assault and Other Charges

Assault was usually charged with other offenses: 21 of the 25 cases charged at least one other article. Article 120 (sexual assault) appeared in 6, Article 134 (general article) in 5, Article 92 (orders violation) in 4, Article 112a (drug) in 3, and Article 90 (disobeying an officer) in 2. When assault is charged with sexual assault or domestic violence, the charges can describe one incident. The sentence then covers the full case.

Compared With 2024

The number of cases went from 31 to 25. The median confinement went from 4 months to 7 months. The share of convictions with confinement went from 86% to 95%. The enlisted punitive discharge rate was 47% in both years. The general court-martial share went from 55% to 44%. In small groups, a few cases can change these figures, so they show direction only.

Rank, Bases, and Rule Changes

Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 68% of the accused, NCOs 28%, and officers 4%. Across all Air Force cases in 2025, junior enlisted members made up 60%. JB Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii and Malmstrom AFB, Montana tried 2 cases each. Holloman AFB, New Mexico; Creech AFB, Nevada; and Osan AB, South Korea tried 1 each. Together they account for 28% of the cases.

Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. For offenses after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new parameters. Assault is not a covered offense, but it can be charged with one. The records lack offense dates, so they cannot separate old-rule from new-rule cases or show any effect.

Limits

Air Force records rarely list charges in a case that ends in full acquittal, so no assault acquittal rate appears here. The data also does not show evidence, plea terms, or cases handled by nonjudicial punishment.

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.