Air Force Reservists Swear In as Space Force’s First Part-Time Guardians

A dozen and a half Air Force Reservists formally transferred to the Space Force on July 15, becoming the new service’s first 18 part-time Guardians.

The move is the culmination of more than two and a half years of work to create a system unlike any other military branch. Another 225 part-timers will transfer in from the Reserve over the next few months, the Space Force said July 17.

Eventually, the Space Force plans to have about 800 part-time Guardians, to include members from the Air National Guard also transferring into the service—though the service has yet to open up its application process for Guard members.

The 2024 and 2025 National Defense Authorization Acts gave the Space Force the go-ahead to start absorbing the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard’s space missions and units and create what leaders call a “single-component” force that combines full- and part-time service members under one system with no Guard or Reserve. Leaders said the new system will give Guardians more career flexibility and better fit the Space Force’s needs.

Implementing the system, however, was no small feat. Officials had to adjust HR systems, think through the promotion system, and create new policies with no easy template from other services to draw upon. They also had to sort through questions from Guard and Reserve members, some eager to join the new service and others who chose not to.

The new part-time Guardians now joining the force will have a very different arrangement from the traditional Guard and Reserve setup. Their jobs will be focused on test, evaluation, training, or planning, while operational assignments will be reserved for full-timers. Those jobs are meant to be episodic and last an average of three years, not be a long-term second career. And the schedule for each job will vary more than the traditional one-weekend-a-month, two-weeks-a-year model—the minimum requirement is 36 days per year but the job could require more than that.

Space Force leaders hope the new system will help them manage the force more effectively, improve quality of life and retention, and tap into skill sets that many reserve component service members develop in their civilian jobs. In the past, service members have complained about running into frustrations with finances and benefits when moving between regular and reserve work, according to a 2023 RAND report. Those barriers are not unique to the Space Force, but removing them is one of several reforms the service is pursuing as it aims to attract and retain top talent.

In the long term, Space Force officials say they envision part-time jobs as a way for Guardians to adjust to changing life circumstances instead of having to jump through the bureaucratic hoops of switching between components. In the short term, at least some of the jobs will help ease the transition of Guard and Reserve jobs into USSF. Air Force Reservists who transfer into the Space Force with 15 to 18 years of satisfactory service will be allowed to remain in a part-time work role until they qualify for retirement.

The transfer process for this batch of Reservists began in September 2025, when the Space Force started accepting applications from the 310th Space Wing. The service announced the selection of 247 Airmen for transfer in April. Previously, the Space Force had accepted 252 Reservists to become full-time Guardians.