The Trump administration has slashed the US Space Force's workforce by almost 14 percent, a dramatic cut that could have an enormous impact on the smallest and youngest branch of the US Armed Forces.As Defense One reports, early retirement and voluntary-resignation programs, both widely used tactics by the newly-minted Trump administration to slash government budgets, are having an "outsized impact" on the Space Force.According to chief of space operations general Chance Saltzman, 14 percent, or roughly 780 civilians, are affected. That's considerably higher than the ten percent that officials had warned would be cut earlier this month.It's a troubling development that could directly undermine the Pentagon's mission to secure the United States' interests in space.During a Senate Armed Services committee hearing this week, Saltzman warned that the Space Force could leave the nation's efforts to protect its assets in orbit woefully behind schedule, allowing adversaries to gain the upper hand.Meanwhile, the Department of Defense is also heavily affected and is expected to lose five to eight percent of its civilian workforce."I'm worried about replacing that level of expertise in the near term as we try to resolve it and make sure we have a good workforce doing that acquisition," Saltzman said.And even more Space Force staffers could soon walk, taking deferred-resignation offers."The DOD is really looking at what the size of the civilian workforce is, and so if those incentives to reshape the workforce affect the Space Force, I'm not sure exactly where we're going to end up, what our final size is going to be," Saltzman said. "As soon as I understand what that size is, then we will redistribute, and reallocate this for."The cuts came at an extremely unfortunate time for the Space Force."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 asked to offer some to resign early," Saltzman said at the committee hearing.Beyond early retirements and voluntary resignations, the Space Force was already planning to cut its workforce by as much as eight percent, according to an announcement earlier this year.Where the cuts leave the Space Force's efforts to gain the upper hand in the space domain remains to be seen. Officials have long warned of adversaries, including Russia and China, that are developing space-based weapons and potentially leaving the US behind."We are not adequately funded for the new missions that I've been given in space superiority," Saltzman said.Despite all of these cuts, the White House announced that it would build an enormous, potentially half-a-trillion-dollar "Golden Dome" missile and air defense shield, indicating that its priorities may simply lie elsewhere.More on the Space Force: The Space Force Is Working on an Aircraft Carrier for SpaceShare This Article #trump #administration #gutting #space #force