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# Air Force Article 90 Cases by the Numbers, 2016–2025
- URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-article-90-trend-2016-2025/
- Published: 2026-10-28T06:33:04.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-30T08:04:05.000Z
- Description: Air Force records from 2016–2025 hold 43 courts-martial that charged Article 90, willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer. The median adjudged confinement in these cases was 7 months, compared with 4 months across all Air Force cases.
- Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart
- Tags: Understanding Trends, Article 90, Air Force

[Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [By Offense](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-offense/) › [Article 90](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-90-courts-martial/) › Air Force

**Short answer:** Air Force records from 2016–2025 hold 43 courts-martial that charged Article 90, willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer. The median adjudged confinement in these cases was 7 months, compared with 4 months across all Air Force cases. Contested cases made up 29%, compared with 48% across the Air Force.

Based on 43 cases · 2016–2025 · Air Force records · data updated October 24, 2026

## Rarely the Only Charge

Only 3 of the 43 cases charged Article 90 by itself. The other cases included other offenses as well.

The most common companion charges were Article 112a (drug offenses) in 15 cases, Article 134 (the general article) in 11, Article 128 (assault) in 10, Article 86 (absence without leave) in 10, and Article 92 (orders violation) in 8\. Each sentence covers every charge in the case, not the disobedience charge alone. That applies to all the sentence figures below.

## Sentences Were Longer Than the Air Force Median

Of the 43 cases, 42 ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 38 of those sentences included confinement (90%). The median confinement was 7 months, compared with 4 months across the Air Force. A quarter of the confinement sentences were 1 year or longer.

These are adjudged sentences, announced at trial. A plea-agreement cap, clemency, or an appeal could reduce the confinement actually served.

Sentences of 6 months to 1 year made up 38% of convictions here, compared with 15% across the Air Force. Sentences under 6 months made up 36%, compared with 48%. Sentences longer than one year were less common than across the service: 7 of 42 convictions (17%), compared with 23%.

| Adjudged confinement            | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Air Force as a whole |
| ------------------------------- | ----------- | ---------- | ------------------------------- |
| No confinement                  | 4           | 10%        | 15%                             |
| Under 6 months                  | 15          | 36%        | 48%                             |
| 6 months to 1 year              | 16          | 38%        | 15%                             |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 4           | 10%        | 16%                             |
| 5 years or more                 | 3           | 7%         | 7%                              |

## Pleas and Who Decided Guilt

A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Only 24 of the 43 records list a plea. Of those, 7 were not-guilty or mixed pleas and 17 were guilty pleas, so 29% were contested. The share across the Air Force was 48%.

The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. A military judge alone decided 31 of 43 cases (72%). Members heard 12: 7 enlisted panels and 5 officer panels. Most judge-alone cases are guilty pleas, so this split mostly follows how many cases were contested.

Air Force records from 2016 to 2019 rarely list a guilty plea, so most of the recorded pleas come from later years.

## General and Special Courts-Martial

General courts-martial made up 53% of these cases (23 of 43), and special courts-martial made up the other 20\. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge or dismissal. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.

At general courts-martial, the median confinement was 11 months, and 43% of cases were contested. At special courts-martial, the median was 4 months, and 10% were contested.

## Rank of the Accused and Punitive Discharges

Of the accused, 30 were junior enlisted (E-1 to E-4), 7 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 6 were officers or warrant officers. That mix is more junior than the Air Force overall, where 62% of the accused were junior enlisted.

A punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge for an enlisted member, or a dismissal for an officer. Of the convicted enlisted members, 24 of 36 received one: 19 bad-conduct and 5 dishonorable. That share is higher than the 56% across the Air Force. Of the 6 convicted officers or warrant officers, 4 were dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

## Case Counts by Year

The yearly case counts were small: 1 in 2016, 2 in 2017, 7 in 2018, 6 in 2019, 3 in 2020, 2 in 2021, 5 in 2022, 7 in 2023, 1 in 2024, and 9 in 2025\. The 43 cases were 2% of the 2,795 Air Force courts-martial in those years.

As a share of convictions with offenses listed, Article 90 was 0% in 2016 and 2024 and 5% in 2023 and 2025\. The number of convictions that included it was highest in 2025, at 8\. The shares use convictions with offenses listed, so years with more or fewer total cases can still be compared. With counts this low, a few trials can change a year's share.

| Year | Convictions incl. Art. 90 | All convictions with offenses listed | Share |
| ---- | ------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | ----- |
| 2016 | 1                         | 205                                  | 0%    |
| 2017 | 2                         | 294                                  | 1%    |
| 2018 | 7                         | 287                                  | 2%    |
| 2019 | 6                         | 271                                  | 2%    |
| 2020 | 3                         | 186                                  | 2%    |
| 2021 | 2                         | 202                                  | 1%    |
| 2022 | 5                         | 208                                  | 2%    |
| 2023 | 7                         | 152                                  | 5%    |
| 2024 | 0                         | 173                                  | 0%    |
| 2025 | 8                         | 169                                  | 5%    |

## Rule Changes in These Years

The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019\. It set fixed panel sizes, created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge, and introduced written plea agreements. Cases with offenses from before 2019 stayed under the old rules.

Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. When every guilty finding in a case is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters. Both changes depend on offense dates, which these records do not have. Trials from 2024 on therefore include both old-rule and new-rule cases. The records cannot show whether either change affected the numbers here.

Air Force convictions that included Article 90, by year: 2016 1, 2017 2, 2018 7, 2019 6, 2020 3, 2021 2, 2022 5, 2023 7, 2024 0, 2025 812016220177201862019320202202152022720230202482025

Air Force convictions that included Article 90, by year

## Where These Cases Were Tried

The installations with the most Article 90 cases were JBSA - Lackland, Texas (5), JB Langley-Eustis, Virginia (3), JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey (3), Holloman AFB, New Mexico (2), and Shaw AFB, South Carolina (2). Together they account for 35% of the 43 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every type, so a high count alone says little about any one installation.

## What the Records Do Not Show

These figures cover only cases that reached a courtroom. Nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, and cases with no action do not appear. The records do not describe the evidence or any plea terms. Air Force records rarely list charges in a full acquittal and never report plea agreements.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see [Article 90 on the law firm's website](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-90/?ref=bodiesburied.com). Dates and sources for the law changes: [UCMJ change timeline](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/ucmj-change-timeline/).

### How We Counted

Air Force courts-martial tried 2016–2025 that charged Article 90 (43 cases). The trend line uses convictions whose records list the offenses found, by trial year.

Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in [Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/military-trial-results/), data updated October 24, 2026\. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: [how this data was built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/how-the-military-trial-results-data-was-built/). Errors: content@bodiesburied.com.

## Related Analysis

- [Article 90 (Willfully Disobeying Superior Officer): Court-Martial Data and Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-90-courts-martial/) (hub)
- [Air Force Courts-Martial: Data and Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial/) (hub)
- [By Offense](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-offense/) (hub)
- [Is Army Disobeying An Officer Prosecution Rising or Falling? Article 90, 2021–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-90-trend-2021-2025/) (another service)
- [Fewer or More? Disobeying An Officer Charges at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2017–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-90-trend-2017-2025/) (another service)
- [Air Force Article 109 Cases by the Numbers, 2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-article-109-trend-2016-2025/)
- [Air Force Article 113 Cases by the Numbers, 2021–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-article-113-trend-2021-2025/)
- [Air Force Article 115 Cases by the Numbers, 2021–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-article-115-trend-2021-2025/)
- [Article 90 Sentences in the Air Force: Confinement and Discharges, 2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-article-90-sent-2016-2025/)
- [Article 90 explained on the law firm's website](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-90/?ref=bodiesburied.com)
- [Search every case in Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/military-trial-results/) (members)

**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](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/?ref=bodiesburied.com). This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.