The Space Force’s primary acquisition organization is bracing for impact as the Trump administration’s orders aimed at cutting the size of the federal government begin to take effect.
Based in Los Angeles, California, Space Systems Command manages the process for buying and building most of the satellites, sensors and ground systems the Space Force operates. Speaking with reporters Monday, SSC’s Commander Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant said the compounding effects of the new administration’s workforce reduction orders, combined with the prospect of a yearlong continuing resolution — which freezes funding at prior-year levels and stalls the start of new programs — is “incredibly challenging.”
“There is a lot of concern,” Garrant said during a media roundtable at the Air Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado. “As a command and as a commander, we are going to focus on how can we continue to deliver the mission with the human resources that we have.”
Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump and his team have issued a slew of orders aimed at significantly reducing the size of the federal civilian workforce. On Jan. 28, the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, offered employees a voluntary deferred resignation program that would allow those approved to leave their government job but receive a paycheck through Sept. 30.
OPM has also directed many agencies to fire probationary employees — most of whom carry that designation because they’ve been in their positions for less than one or two years — and plans to implement a sweeping reduction in force across the federal government in the coming months.
Garrant said SSC “had a considerable number” of employees apply for the deferred resignation program, which is being implemented this week. The command also has a number of probationary employees who could be affected, and SSC is expecting those cuts to take effect in the next week or two. An SSC spokesperson did not respond by press time to a request for details on the number of affected employees.
“The intent is to decrease the size of the federal government,” Garrant said. “As the commander of SSC, I’m committed to executing the administration’s direction and vision.”
Garrant said SSC is planning ahead as much as possible for what he described as a “rapid offramp” of personnel. The goal of the plan is twofold — to make sure affected employees are “taken care of” and to ensure that the work they were doing is absorbed elsewhere in the command.
“Just because someone leaves doesn’t mean that work doesn’t get done. It just means the billet that they were sitting on goes away,” he said. “We’re being pretty deliberate in our planning, to the extent we can, to minimize those impacts.”
In a separate briefing with reporters, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said he worries about the impact of workforce cuts on a service that’s still growing. However, he added, the service is designed to be flexible and has performed its mission with fewer personnel than it has today.
“I’m always worried about making sure we have the right workforce to do the positions that we’ve been given,” he said. “The good news is we were to be lean and agile. So, if you start cutting back, we kinda know how that works.”
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department’s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.
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