The U.S. Space Force has lost 14% of its civilian workforce in recent months, as the Department of Defense has been encouraging workers to leave.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed a reduction of the civilian workforce across the DOD by 5%-8% as part of “restoring readiness in the force,” the official February memo stated.

Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations, told the Senate Armed Services Committee this week about the reduction to his staff. The Space Force employed 14,000 members last year, with about 9,400 of them in the active duty.

Colorado is home to most guardians, with the rest scattered in smaller pockets at bases around the United States.

The young military branch was growing its civilian ranks when the DOD froze those efforts and asked the service to offer employees the deferred resignation and early retirement programs, Saltzman said. Its small numbers lead to a large percentage of departures, he said.

“We understand the desire to reduce the civilian workforce. [It is] just having a little bit of an outsized impact on the Space Force,” Saltzman added.

Saltzman emphasized the importance of civilian workers in the Space Force, stating that those workers are an integral part of the military branch.

“We rely heavily on our civilian workforce,” Saltzman said. “They bring expertise that we don’t have in active duty. They bring corporate continuity across all of our processes and procedures.”

At the same time, Space Force is transferring full-time members of the space-focused Air Force Reserve into its ranks into largely training-based roles. The Air Force Reserve will no longer house space-focused units under the plan as those airmen either transfer into the Space Force or into other roles.

The Washington Examiner contributed to this report.