Swordsmyth
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The Air Force and Space Force budgets call for nearly $2.3 billion in spending cuts in 2026, including funding for more than 5,700 full-time civilian jobs, linked to the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, an Air & Space Forces Magazine analysis has found.
The cuts are spread across 400 line items throughout the 2026 budget and affect nearly every mission area in the Air Force and Space Force. The reductions provide the most detailed insights yet into how DOGE’s efforts to shrink federal spending affect the Department of the Air Force.
Air Force spokespeople did not answer whether the reductions identified in the fiscal 2026 request were included in the $10.4 billion in savings Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Air Force Secretary Troy Meink announced as part of the DOGE initiative last month.
“The Department of the Air Force is optimizing its civilian workforce in line with Presidential directives and Secretarial orders to reform the Federal workforce, maximizing efficiency and productivity,” a service spokesperson said.
Budget documents referencing proposed reductions cite a pair of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump in February that directed federal agency leaders to work with DOGE staffers to reshape the workforce and rein in spending. Many of the cuts note they “promote efficiencies and advance the policies of the administration.” Nowhere in those documents, however, are all the DOGE cuts laid out in full.
The bulk of the cuts, nearly $2 billion, impact Air Force programs, while about $289 million would affect the Space Force. Some $695 million in 28 separate line items would reduce spending on air operations. Another $539 million in budget savings comes from cuts to 183 research and development programs, the budget documents show.
Base support for air operations would see the single most expensive cut at $296 million and the equivalent of 2,150 full-time jobs, or 7 percent of that workforce, according to the budget request. Another $115 million in proposed savings comes from the acquisition workforce, where cuts were made to capability integration staff.
Other staff cuts include about a quarter of full-time civilians doing cyberspace activities, and about 1 in 5 civilians would be cut from enlisted recruit training and Air Force Reserve military manpower and personnel management.
In total, Air & Space Forces Magazine found $1.2 billion in civilian job cuts, $837.2 million in advisory and assistance contract reductions, and $221.8 million in reduced travel expenses that cited DOGE. That appears to be an undercount: An Air Force overview of the 2026 request lists $1.7 billion in savings via “civilian workforce optimization,” $1 billion in cuts to advisory and assistance services contracts, and $368.1 million recouped from discretionary travel.
Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson told reporters Aug. 7 that the department hasn’t decided whether to lay off more civilians. The Department of the Air Force’s budget overview calls for about 9,800 fewer civilian workers across the two services; in May, the Air Force’s uniformed personnel chief said she expected to lose about 12,000 civilians, or 6 percent of the workforce.
“DOGE’s work at the department is not going to stop, that is absolutely for certain,” Wilson said. “We are committed to cutting government waste and bureaucracy wherever we can. So our DOGE team is going to be looking into all facets of that across this department, across the services, and they’re going to be engaging with the services to make sure that we’re doing everything in a uniform fashion that makes sense, and make sure that our warfighters have everything they need at the end of the day. … That relies on a department that is functioning efficiently.”
More at:
www.airandspaceforces.com
The cuts are spread across 400 line items throughout the 2026 budget and affect nearly every mission area in the Air Force and Space Force. The reductions provide the most detailed insights yet into how DOGE’s efforts to shrink federal spending affect the Department of the Air Force.
Air Force spokespeople did not answer whether the reductions identified in the fiscal 2026 request were included in the $10.4 billion in savings Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Air Force Secretary Troy Meink announced as part of the DOGE initiative last month.
“The Department of the Air Force is optimizing its civilian workforce in line with Presidential directives and Secretarial orders to reform the Federal workforce, maximizing efficiency and productivity,” a service spokesperson said.
Budget documents referencing proposed reductions cite a pair of executive orders issued by President Donald Trump in February that directed federal agency leaders to work with DOGE staffers to reshape the workforce and rein in spending. Many of the cuts note they “promote efficiencies and advance the policies of the administration.” Nowhere in those documents, however, are all the DOGE cuts laid out in full.
The bulk of the cuts, nearly $2 billion, impact Air Force programs, while about $289 million would affect the Space Force. Some $695 million in 28 separate line items would reduce spending on air operations. Another $539 million in budget savings comes from cuts to 183 research and development programs, the budget documents show.
Base support for air operations would see the single most expensive cut at $296 million and the equivalent of 2,150 full-time jobs, or 7 percent of that workforce, according to the budget request. Another $115 million in proposed savings comes from the acquisition workforce, where cuts were made to capability integration staff.
Other staff cuts include about a quarter of full-time civilians doing cyberspace activities, and about 1 in 5 civilians would be cut from enlisted recruit training and Air Force Reserve military manpower and personnel management.
In total, Air & Space Forces Magazine found $1.2 billion in civilian job cuts, $837.2 million in advisory and assistance contract reductions, and $221.8 million in reduced travel expenses that cited DOGE. That appears to be an undercount: An Air Force overview of the 2026 request lists $1.7 billion in savings via “civilian workforce optimization,” $1 billion in cuts to advisory and assistance services contracts, and $368.1 million recouped from discretionary travel.
Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson told reporters Aug. 7 that the department hasn’t decided whether to lay off more civilians. The Department of the Air Force’s budget overview calls for about 9,800 fewer civilian workers across the two services; in May, the Air Force’s uniformed personnel chief said she expected to lose about 12,000 civilians, or 6 percent of the workforce.
“DOGE’s work at the department is not going to stop, that is absolutely for certain,” Wilson said. “We are committed to cutting government waste and bureaucracy wherever we can. So our DOGE team is going to be looking into all facets of that across this department, across the services, and they’re going to be engaging with the services to make sure that we’re doing everything in a uniform fashion that makes sense, and make sure that our warfighters have everything they need at the end of the day. … That relies on a department that is functioning efficiently.”
More at:
Code:
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/doge-air-force-space-force-budget/Here's All the DOGE-Linked Cuts in the Air, Space Force Budget
The Air Force and Space Force budgets detail nearly $2.3 billion in spending cuts linked to the Department of Government Efficiency.
www.airandspaceforces.com
