{"id":471995,"date":"2026-02-16T13:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T13:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/471995\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T13:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T13:13:10","slug":"space-force-beats-its-recruiting-goal-wants-to-double-in-size","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/471995\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Force beats its recruiting goal, wants to double in size"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"pw-incontent-excluded article-paragraph skip\">Space Force wants to double the number of guardians in its ranks, and is making progress on that, having already beat its recruitment goals for this fiscal year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">This past week the six senior enlisted leaders for each branch of the military were testifying before Congress about <a href=\"https:\/\/taskandpurpose.com\/news\/military-housing-hearing\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">quality of life<\/a> in the armed forces. They spoke on a range of issues, from housing to women\u2019s capabilities in combat. Along the way, Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John Bentivegna said that the service is currently at 125% of its recruiting goal for the 2026 fiscal year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">It also wants to double its current size of 10,000 guardians to meet a \u201cnational security necessity,\u201d something Bentivegna <a href=\"https:\/\/www.armed-services.senate.gov\/hearings\/to-receive-testimony-from-the-senior-enlisted-leaders-on-servicemember-and-family-quality-of-life\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told Congress<\/a> was \u201centirely achievable.\u201d He pointed to specific concerns that Space Force wants to grow to address, noting threats such as Chinese space weapons and Russian anti-satellite missiles and ground-based lasers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">According to the Department of the Air Force, Space Force has met its goals every year since it was established in December 2019. This fiscal year, Space Force wanted to bring in 730 new recruits, Air &amp; Space Forces Magazine <a href=\"https:\/\/www.airandspaceforces.com\/space-force-aiming-to-double-in-size-blows-past-recruiting-goal\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">noted<\/a>, which is significantly smaller than the other military branches. New trainees going through basic military training are also now getting Space Force\u2019s new dress uniform.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tTop Stories This Week\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">Space Force leadership has said for the last few years it wants to rapidly grow, but it\u2019s only in the last few months that much of the infrastructure and organizing structures of that growth came into focus. Alongside deploying new satellites into orbit at a high rate of launches, Space Force has set up terrestrial outposts in strategic locations and worked on defining what it calls \u201corbital warfare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">This past month it formally activated Space Force contingents in U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/taskandpurpose.com\/news\/space-force-northern-hemisphere\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Northern<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/taskandpurpose.com\/news\/space-force-southcom-venezuela\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Southern<\/a> Command, following the latter taking part in <a href=\"https:\/\/taskandpurpose.com\/news\/what-happened-operation-absolute-resolve\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Operation Absolute Resolve<\/a> against Venezuela. The service and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine noted Space Force\u2019s role, alongside U.S. Cyber Command, in helping to \u201ccreate a path\u201d for American forces into Caracas, allowing special operations units to capture and extradite Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-paragraph skip\">Bentivegna also provided more insight into Space Force\u2019s role in the <a href=\"https:\/\/taskandpurpose.com\/news\/pentagon-midnight-hammer-iran\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">attack on Iran\u2019s nuclear sites<\/a> last summer, something the service and Caine have only discussed in vague terms. According to Bentivegna, Guardians \u201cprovided precision navigation, critical intelligence, and life-saving missile warning\u201d as U.S. forces carried out a series of airstrikes inside Iranian territory and flew out of danger.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771247590_157_250319-N-ML799-1660K.jpeg\" class=\"max-w-[100%]\" alt=\"\"  \/>\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Task &amp; Purpose Video<\/p>\n<p>Each week on Tuesdays and Fridays our team will bring you analysis of military tech, tactics, and doctrine.<\/p>\n<p>\t\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Nicholas Slayton is a Contributing Editor for Task &amp; Purpose. In addition to covering breaking news, he writes about history, shipwrecks, and the military\u2019s hunt for unidentified anomalous phenomenon (formerly known as UFOs).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Space Force wants to double the number of guardians in its ranks, and is making progress on that,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-471995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}