The Air Force and Space Force plan to rehire for thousands of civilian jobs in critical national security fields after acknowledging that they cut staff below “established requirements” in 2026.
The Department of the Air Force is looking to add back the equivalent of more than 4,300 full-time civilian jobs across 30 specialties in the active-duty Air Force and Space Force and the Air National Guard, at a cost of $291 million, according to a Federal News Network analysis of the department’s fiscal 2027 funding request.
Budget documents repeatedly note that roles were eliminated for fiscal 2026 as part of “comprehensive data-hygiene and manpower-validation efforts, resulting in a correction where FY2026 staffing levels were set below the … established requirements.”
Now officials want to bring back positions that run the gamut from homeland defense and flight training to recruiting and facilities maintenance, budget documents show.
Base support would see the biggest bump by far, adding more than 1,600 FTE positions at $92 million. The broad category spans fire, law enforcement and emergency services; maintenance and logistics; support to nuclear forces; and “investments related to expansion, modernization and diversification of our nuclear deterrent and prioritization of the readiness of forces,” according to the Air Force.
Support roles are largely filled by civilian staff to maintain continuity and expertise as troops move from base to base over the course of their careers. They ensure service members are fed, care for their children and keep installations safe so troops can focus on military readiness instead, said Alex Wagner, a former assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs.
Civilian education; logistics operations; communications, intelligence and special operations; support to U.S. Strategic Command; and property maintenance would each bring in hundreds of civilians apiece as well.
A department spokesperson told Air and Space Forces Magazine, which first reported on the increases, that the positions are not a “one-for-one restoration” of jobs that existed before the Trump administration’s workforce purge began last year. One full-time equivalent may mean a single full-time job or multiple part-time positions that add up to a full annual workload.
DOGE workforce reshaping
Budget documents link the restoration to Trump administration orders to reshape the federal workforce, including through the Department of Government Efficiency.
Increased funding and manpower “reflects the alignment of civilian staffing to validated mission requirements pursuant to Executive Order 14210, ‘Implementing the President’s Department of Government Efficiency Workforce Optimization Initiative,’ and the March 2025 Deputy Secretary of War memorandum,” documents said.
DOGE spearheaded reductions through sweeping layoffs and the Deferred Resignation Program, which paid federal employees not to work until they were officially cut at the end of fiscal 2025.
“The DOGE team … didn’t understand the role of the civilian workforce in government,” Wagner said. “Not doing any assessment to understand where cuts could be taken and where cuts shouldn’t be taken … landed the Department [of Defense] in a world of hurt.”
It’s unclear how many of the jobs listed would come from other offices, and how many would be created on top of the current workforce. For instance, budget documents show seven fields are slated to lose 19 positions next year to “properly align civilian staffing to actual mission requirements within the DAF and to meet internal reorganization efforts and civilian workforce reforms.”
Those include primary combat forces, medical readiness, mobilization preparedness, recruit training, the Reserve Officer Training Corps, training and recruiting exams and off-duty and voluntary education.
The services are asking Congress for nearly 3,200 more civilian billets next year, for a combined 173,114 authorized positions if enacted. That number of funded jobs is far above the roughly 151,000 civilians who worked for the Air Force and Space Force as of July, the most recent month of OPM data.
Nearly 20% of the Air Force and Space Force’s civilian workers — more than 34,000 people — have departed since President Donald Trump returned to the White House on Jan. 20, 2025, according to OPM data. New hires have offset some of those losses.
Air Force Materiel Command, which has the biggest civilian workforce in the department, has seen the largest exodus at nearly 11,000 employees (15%), according to OPM data. Others have lost fewer people but a larger share of their workforce, like the Air National Guard, which has seen more than 7,000 people (48% of its civilian workforce) leave since January 2025.
Engagement, readiness impacts
Their exits have slowed acquisition programs, pared back on-base services and increased wait times for IT support, among other impacts. And the purge has created a culture of fear as remaining staff wonder if they might be next.
Last winter, a Partnership for Public Service survey of more than 11,000 career federal civilians found widespread dissatisfaction and declining performance in their offices as workforce cuts took hold.
Of the nearly 70 Department of the Air Force employees who responded, more than half said they were less engaged at work compared to the previous year. About 4 in 10 workers said they were satisfied with their job, while nearly 3 in 10 said their office was worse at fulfilling stakeholder needs.
Just 5% said they were highly motivated by the organization’s political leaders.
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, the department’s top civilian appointee, acknowledged Monday that downsizing has affected the force but declined to offer specifics.
“They’re a critical part of the Department of the Air Force, getting our mission done across the board, so we continue to invest in them,” he told reporters at the Air and Space Forces Association’s annual fall conference outside Washington.
Asked what civilian employees should expect in the year ahead, Meink said the Air Force and Space Force plan to hire more civilian staff for technology initiatives like artificial intelligence, among other high-priority needs. Not only will AI drive hiring, he said, but it will reshape what the civilian workforce is asked to do as well.
The department can also add civilians in roles where AI can’t replace humans, like flightline maintenance.
“There are some areas where we probably need less people,” Meink said. “There’s going to be a constant adjustment.”
Copyright
© 2026 Federal News Network. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.