Citing specialized training needs that exceed those of the other services, the Space Force is making its first move toward an eight-year enlistment model by offering a hefty bonus to those who choose a longer commitment.

On Monday, the service announced the launch of its Initial Enlisted Bonus Pilot program, running July 1 to Nov. 30. The first-come, first-serve program will offer a $25,000 bonus to enlistees who commit to eight-year contracts until the cap of 100 bonuses is reached. The incentive is available to new signers regardless of their chosen specialty.

In a conversation hosted by the Military Officers Association of America, Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John Bentivegna explained that the service was looking to move to an eight-year enlistment model for all contracts and testing the feasibility of doing so.

“If you want to become a cyber defender, it’s going to take me a little time to be able to train you and give you the experience,” Bentivegna said. “I can’t do it in four years — maybe not even six — but in eight, I can give you training, experience, exercises and get you to become a noncommissioned officer where I need you.”

The Space Force remains the smallest service in the Department of Defense by far, with an authorized end strength of 10,400 for fiscal 2026. Bentivegna said that the service’s current-term enlistment goal was 850, with a target of reaching a force of 11,000 by the end of the fiscal year. While Space Force officials have said they’ve had no difficulty recruiting for a small and highly specialized mission, Bentivegna’s comments reveal the challenges of growing proficiency in technical fields with a lot of required qualifications and training.

The service, he noted, only has three major career fields: space operations, cyber and intelligence.

“In addition to just any basic enlistment, physical and background checks and everything associated with it, [guardians] have to be able to pass a single school background investigation because every single enlisted member has a [Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information] clearance,” Bentivegna said. “So that’s an additional filter that we have to go through.”

While Space Force has seen strong retention since it activated in 2019, Bentivegna emphasized that the time needed to build the time and talent the service needs — while holding off civilian head-hunters — has been a challenge.

“We know we are fighting against industry and the commercial market. When you think about what the commercial industry in the space domain is doing, there’s a lot of desire for somebody who knows orbital mechanics and has done launch to go work for some of the big corporate companies that are trying to take advantage of it,” he said.

While the current pilot program offers financial incentives to get guardians to commit to longer contracts, Bentivegna emphasized that cash alone is unlikely to build the bullpen of experienced and committed troops that the Space Force is after.

“Another zero at the end of a paycheck isn’t necessarily going to equate to the experience of what it means to wear the uniform,” he said. “So I focus a lot on the guardian experience … and keeping them challenged and interested is really important.”

He added that he’d recently sent a message to the force encouraging enlisted guardians to take advantage of the space test program, a 40-hour master’s degree program available to 24 troops per year through the Air Force Flight Test School at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

“So we’re giving enlisted guardians opportunities to do things like that, to say, ‘Hey, stay with us,’” Bentivegna said. “We taught you some things, we gave you a clearance, we got you opportunity … let me build on your potential to do other things you may not be able to do anywhere else.”

Until now, the Space Force has employed four- and six-year enlistment terms. According to this week’s announcement, the $25,000 bonus will be disbursed upon successful completion of technical training, which varies by specialty but can take up to the first two years of an enlistment.