The U.S. Space Force is expected to receive a 14% cut to its workforce due to the Trump administration’s initiative to reduce the Defense Department’s civilian workers.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the decision on Feb. 20, citing an intention to eliminate anywhere from 5% to 8% of civilian employees throughout the Defense Department. At the time, Hegseth didn’t specify the number of cuts for each department.
“Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has indicated that the Pentagon is taking a deliberate, methodical approach to review its workforce and identify positions that may not directly contribute to warfighting success,” a member of the Air Force said in February.
Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations, mentioned the cuts while testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee. He explained how they could negatively affect the Space Force.
“The civilian workforce by the end of ’25 was supposed to be almost 1,000 larger than it’s going to end up being,” Saltzman said. “Total reductions have been almost 14% of our civilian workforce inside the Space Force.”
The Space Force was a military branch created in 2019 during President Donald Trump’s first term. Given its youth, especially compared to the country’s other military departments, it was still in its relative infancy and, as Air & Space Forces Magazine said, “still in the process of getting its footing.” Implementing the new job cuts will make that objective even more challenging, especially considering that civilians comprise approximately 33% of Space Force personnel.
“We’ve certainly seen people leaving,” Saltzman said. “We were in a period of managed growth, and so there was a deficit when we were trying to get to a larger civilian workforce, and we were asked to stop and then offer some to resign early.”
“We understand the desire to reduce the civilian workforce, [it is] just having a little bit of an outsized impact on the Space Force,” Saltzman added.
Saltzman emphasized the importance of civilian workers in the Space Force, stating that those workers are an integral part of the military branch.
“We rely heavily on our civilian workforce,” Saltzman said. “They bring expertise that we don’t have in active duty. They bring corporate continuity across all of our processes and procedures.”