The Air Force has freed up money to try to entice more air battle managers to remain in uniform.

Service officials are expanding the 2019 Aviation Bonus Program to include more air battle managers, according to a Monday news release. Air Force spokeswoman Capt. Carrie Volpe, in an email Tuesday, said the expanded pool would make 595 additional air battle managers eligible for bonuses totaling $100,000.

The Air Force in January announced the bonuses and eligibility requirements for this year’s program. The original announcement included some 13B air battle managers, who could receive $20,000 annually for signing up for three to six more years, or $25,000 annually if they signed up for seven to nine more years.

Now, the Air Force is allowing air battle managers who are past their undergraduate flying training active-duty service commitment, but are not yet eligible for retirement, to receive the bonus. Those ABMs would have to sign up for five more years, and would receive $20,000 per year.

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Volpe said this is the only change to the Aviation Bonus Program at this time, and that the Air Force allocated additional funding to the program to make more ABMs eligible.

Aviators have until Aug. 30 to apply for this year’s retention bonuses.

Air battle managers perform battle management and command and control on aircraft such as the E-3 Sentry and E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, or JSTARS.

The Air Force in recent years has significantly expanded its aviator retention bonuses in a bid to close an alarming shortfall in pilots, and to compete with commercial airlines that are luring away military pilots with their hefty salaries.

Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.

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