Part-Time Military Service

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.

Instead of a conventional Guard or Reserve force to supplement its ranks, the Space Force is moving out on something new—a part-time Guardian force—that could become a model other services can adopt.

“The Space Force is going to be a pathfinder on how to rethink the concept of full- and part-time work roles … which may inform the way that the Department of Defense chooses to use full- and part-time work in the future,” said Katharine Kelley, deputy chief of space operations for human capital, at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

“It’s going to take us a little bit of time to really solidify how the work role distinctions lay out,” she added. “But we really want to make sure we get it right.”

The Space Force has five years to create a single system governing both full- and part-time Guardians under the Space Force Personnel Management Act (SFPMA or PMA). Signed into law last December, it frees USSF from the bureaucracy of operating a conventional reserve component. 

“For those who have experienced the challenges of moving from one status to another, you know how administratively burdensome, how challenging that is: from points, contributions, time, complexity, administrative nature, paperwork, the whole thing,” Kelley said. “Basically, you know how painful it is.”

The goal is a system in which Guardians can switch easily between full-time and part-time (and back again), enabling Guardians to take a break from service to pursue advanced degrees, gain civilian work experience in commercial space or cyber, or take time off to care for family members. 

Properly managed, the Space Force can change the conventional career landscape that features only a one-way exit door to Active service. Enabling the service to retain talent is a key objective, said Chief Master Sgt. Todd Scott, senior advisor to the Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force. “At the end of the day, it’s supposed to [improve] our ability to have a long-term relationship with the talent, so we can access it when we need and not force members to break the relationship with the Space Force.” 

Chief Master Sgt. of the Space Force John F. Bentivegna sees this as answering “one of the age-old problems in the military: [that] the training, education, and experience that we invest in our military members makes them very valuable to other organizations,” he said. If the Space Force exercises its new authority effectively, it will take “that career-long investment and make sure it doesn’t walk out the door.” 

Not all jobs will lend themselves to part-time work. Institutional support jobs, such as test and evaluation, training, education, doctrine development, and certain staff jobs might work well for part-time personnel. Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said, “Pull them into the institutional force, where they know, ‘Hey, I work two days a week because I teach a class,’ or ‘I’m surging for two weeks to do a test for GPS or MILSATCOM,’ for example.” 

Operator jobs, however, will be full-time work. “If you are employed in-place 24/7, that’s probably a full-time work role,” Kelley said. If you’re a commander of a unit, that’s probably a full-time work role.” 

‘We Do Not Want To Hurt Anybody’

Five full-time Air Force Reservists became Guardians earlier this year, a simple transfer much like those for thousands of Airmen, Sailors, Soldiers, and Marines since 2020. 

But the process is not so straightforward for the part-time force, said Lt. Gen. John P. Healy, Chief of Air Force Reserve and commander of Air Force Reserve Command.

“The Active duty, whether it be the Air Force or the Space Force, is not accustomed to care and feeding for part-timers,” he said. That’s why SFPMA gave the service five years to make it work—“to give us a little bit more time to make sure all those systems are ready.”

Unresolved details include whether part-timers should be paid by the day or by the hour; how many days they should work per week; how flexible are those arrangements; and what kind of work part-timers will do? 

The Space Force is not taking “a squadron from the Air Force Reserve and have that squadron do the same thing” in the Space Force, Healy said. “It’s that core set of skills that [Reservists] possess that are going to be utilized to the best of the ability of the Space Force as a Guardian.”

More than 300 full-time Air Force Reservists have applied to join the Space Force full-time, Healy said. Another 1,400 Air Force Reservists are in space career fields and working at the 310th Space Wing in Colorado. Those billets will go away, but the missions will remain—in the Space Force. By 2028, the transition must be completed, Healy said. 

Saltzman said the goal is to make the transition seamless and pain free. “We do not want to hurt anybody in the transition period,” he said. “That is first and foremost in our minds. And when I say hurt, I mean, when you cross over, you don’t get paid.”

Reservists who want to remain in the Air Force Reserve will be accommodated as much as possible, said AFRC Command Chief Master Sgt. Israel Nuñez.

“They may look at it and say, ‘Hey, I love doing the space mission, but the part-time service in the Space Force is going to look different than Reserve service,’” he said. “’But maybe I want to retrain.’ … So we’re providing them those options now, so they don’t have to wait until 2028 to make that decision.”

Guard Duty 

For space units in the Air National Guard, the situation is somewhat more complex. Most of those units are deployable, which clashes with the Space Force’s vision for its part-time force, Saltzman said.

“When they deploy, you need them full-time. When they come back from deployment, you don’t need them full time,” he explained. “So suddenly the Guard model is a different operational model from a part-time force, because they do a different mission set than what our traditional Air Force Reserve counterparts did.”

The relatively small number of Guardsmen doing space work has proved to be a political hot potato. Governors of 53 states and territories wrote in April to Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III objecting to having Guard units absorbed into the Space Force without their consent. 

An internal survey sent to the 14 ANG units across seven states that perform space missions found that 70 percent of respondents said they would prefer to retrain or retire rather than join the Space Force, according to the Guard. Some cited concerns that a transfer would force them to move. 

“I love being here,” said 1st Lt. Mao Lefiti of the Hawaii-based 150th Electromagnetic Warfare Squadron. “I don’t want to leave. … I’m kind of in a tactical role, and the uncertainty that I may be moved to who knows where is cause for concern.”

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall was unbothered by the criticism.

“I think when you go to people and say, ‘Do you want to stay like you are or jump off a cliff?’ They’re going to stay like they are,” he said at the time. “We’re not asking them to jump off a cliff. We’re asking them to go to another arrangement which will be very, very like the one that they’re currently serving under. They’re not going to see much change frankly, as I see it.”

A draft version of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act would allow Air National Guard units with space missions to transfer into the Space Force, but it would cap transfers at 580. An Air Force analysis found that only nine Air National Guard units would move into the Space Force, with 578 full-time and part-time billets. The measure would require the units to remain based in their current locations. 

For members who prefer to stay in the Guard, the bill would require the Air Force to offer retraining and reassignment. The bill passed the House but has not cleared the Senate. Once the measure clears the Senate, the two bills would have to be reconciled at a conference. 

Getting through all that resistance is hard, but “nothing that keeps me up at night,” said Brig. Gen. Nathan D. Yates, mobilization assistant to the deputy chief of space operations for operations, cyber, and nuclear. He likened the process to climbing a mountain. 

“You look up from the bottom, it seems very challenging, and halfway up, you’re out of breath, your quads are burning, and your calves are seized up,” he said. “But you keep going, and once you’re at the top, you’re like, ‘Well, that was worth it!’”

Establishing part-time military service is similar. “It’s brand- new,” he said. “And that’s challenging. But as far as challenges go, we’ve got the road map out in front of us. We just need to execute it.”