§20233 Eligibility for Consideration for Promotion: Designation as Joint Qualified Officer Required Before Promotion to Brigadier General; Exceptions

Summary

A Space Force officer cannot be promoted to brigadier general unless they are designated as a joint qualified officer under section 661. The Secretary of Defense may waive that rule for one officer at a time in certain situations: when it is needed for the service; when the promotion is mainly for special scientific or technical skills that have no joint requirement; when the officer is already in a joint duty job, has at least two years of continuous joint duty, and finished the education program in subsections (b) and (c) of section 2155; or when the officer has finished the education in section 661(c)(1)(A) but has not yet had the chance to get the experience in 661(c)(1)(B) and is not exempt under subsection (g). Waivers are decided case-by-case. If waived for the first reason above, the officer’s first job as a general must be a joint duty assignment. The waiver power for the last reason can be delegated only as allowed in section 619a(e). The Secretary of Defense must write rules to carry this out and must list the officer categories covered by the science/technical exception. The rule does not apply to officers who transfer from a reserve component to the Space Force before the first day of the sixth fiscal year after this law was enacted and who already hold the ranks listed in the law.