The Air Force^[1] and Space Force^[2] have paused wide-ranging reorganization efforts^[3] aimed at becoming more competitive with China, with the delay allowing the next service secretary to weigh in on the plan.

A year ago, the Department of the Air Force unveiled a sweeping plan for the services to prepare for great power competition -- defense-speak for new spending and strategies focused on adversaries such as Russia and China. There were 24 initiatives in total, mostly spearheaded by former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, an appointee under former President Joe Biden.

President Donald Trump's new defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, ordered a pause of the reorganization plans last week, a Department of the Air Force spokesperson told Military.com.

Read Next: In One of the Marines' Most Iconic Jobs, a Stunning Pattern of Suicide^[4]

"On Feb. 6, the secretary of defense directed the Department of the Air Force to pause all planning actions connected to its Reoptimizing for Great Power Competition efforts," an Air Force spokesperson said. "The planning pause remains in effect until a Senate-confirmed secretary and under secretary of the Air Force are in place and have the opportunity to review the initiatives."

Military.com reported in September^[5], prior to Trump's election, that the Air Force efforts would face massive headwinds under the next administration, and researchers within the Government Accountability Office, Congress' watchdog agency, expressed worries about the endeavor's survival.

The pause does not require reversing actions that have already been taken by the Department of the Air Force, such as the service's move to reestablish warrant officers^[6] for the first time in more than 60 years.

Experts like Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute focused on defense strategy, budgeting and space policy, told Military.com in an interview Monday that it's not surprising the Air Force is pausing the efforts in the wake of Kendall's departure.

"It means it's unlikely that this reorg would go forward. I think it's the most likely outcome, when you halt it subject to a review and the main proponent of it is someone who left office and was from the previous administration," Harrison said. "I think that just means it's most likely this is going to revert to the way things were."

Many of the efforts that will be paused were focused on acquisitions and reorganizing existing commands. That included the creation of an Integrated Capabilities Command and a Nuclear Systems Center, and elevating Air Forces Cyber to be a stand-alone command.

Harrison said it didn't appear that military leadership had fully bought into those efforts. He added that the Trump administration has worked to rewrite many of the moves made by the previous leadership, including Kendall's bold initiatives.

"I think it's one of the things that the new administration seems to want to do, is to wipe out the legacy of the previous administration," Harrison said. "This may be part of that, that they're trying to kind of erase what [Kendall] did in his almost four years leading the department."

Not all efforts under the reorganization effort will fall to the wayside.

A massive training event scheduled for summer 2025 called Exercise Resolute Force Pacific, or REFORPAC, "is not impacted by the secretary of defense's recent order to temporarily pause planning," Lt. Col. Karl Wiest, a spokesperson for Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, said in an emailed statement.

"This exercise, a first of its kind since the Cold War, is intended to test the Air Force's ability to move large amounts of people, equipment and resources into the Pacific theater at speed and scale," Wiest said. "REFORPAC is well-aligned with the Department of Defense's priorities of enhancing warrior ethos and credible deterrence."

It's not clear when Trump's pick to lead the Department of the Air Force will be confirmed. Last month, he named Troy Meink, currently the principal director of the National Reconnaissance Office and a former Air Force officer, as his choice.

Last week, Reuters reported^[7] that Meink arranged a multibillion-dollar contract award to favor Trump adviser and billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX in 2021.

Related: The Air Force Unveiled an Ambitious Reorganization Plan. Can It Survive a Presidential Election?^[8]

All military services must pause accepting recruits with histories of gender dysphoria and halt some gender-affirming health care for transgender service members, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered in a memo revealed Monday.

The memo, which was dated Friday, was disclosed in a Monday court filing from the Trump administration as it fights a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's order to ban transgender people from serving in the military.

Hegseth's order comes after the military services issued their own patchwork of memos in recent weeks on how to handle Trump's order and provides more clarity on how the Pentagon is approaching implementation of the president's directive.

Read Next: Army, Navy Restore Webpages Highlighting Women's Service as Other Military Diversity Efforts Are Erased^[1]

"Effective immediately, all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are paused, and all unscheduled, scheduled or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for service members are paused," Hegseth wrote in the memo.

A footnote in the memo specifies that the banned medical treatments are gender-affirming surgeries and "newly initiated" hormone therapy. It does not say whether troops who have been taking hormones for a while are affected.

Gender dysphoria is the medical term for the feeling of distress caused by someone's gender identity not matching their sex assigned at birth. Not all transgender people are diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

Late last month, Trump ordered the Pentagon to adopt a new policy^[2] on transgender military service that reflects the administration's stance that "adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual's sex conflicts with a soldier's commitment to an honorable, truthful and disciplined lifestyle, even in one's personal life."

A day after Trump's order, the Navy^[3] became the first branch of the military to stop accepting transgender recruits, Military.com first reported^[4]. The Navy's memo made no distinction between gender dysphoria and transgender individuals, saying categorically that "applicants who self-identify as transgender are not eligible to process for enlistment at this time."

The Pentagon did not respond by publication to Military.com's request for clarification on whether, given the discrepancy between the Navy's memo and Hegseth's, transgender recruits who have not been diagnosed with gender dysphoria are still eligible to serve.

While Hegseth said in his memo that service members with gender dysphoria will be "treated with dignity and respect," he also repeated the assertion in Trump's order that "expressing a false 'gender identity' divergent from an individual's sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service."

The Pentagon also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Hegseth's memo in general.

As of December, 4,240 people with a gender dysphoria diagnosis were serving on active duty or in the National Guard^[5] or the reserves, a defense official told Military.com.

From 2015 to 2024, costs for gender-affirming health care, including mental health care, hormone therapy and surgery, totaled $52 million, the defense official added. That includes hormone therapy for about 3,200 troops and surgery for about 1,000.

The cost for gender-affirming medical care represents a fraction of a percent of total Defense Department medical costs. For example, in 2024 alone, the entire budget for the military health system was $60.2 billion.

Trump's order has sparked at least two lawsuits. One -- filed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, or NCLR, and GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, or GLAD, on behalf of six transgender service members and two recruits -- was filed the day after Trump signed his order.

The other, from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and Lambda Legal on behalf of six transgender troops and one recruit, was filed last week^[6].

Filings from NCLR and GLAD for their lawsuit revealed last week that at least one active-duty transgender trainee was already in the process of being separated from the Army^[7].

In a sworn statement for the court, Miriam Perelson, who has been in basic training at Fort Jackson^[8], South Carolina, since mid-January, said she was told she would be separated after she refused to sign a form saying she had to start using male living quarters and bathrooms. For several nights while she considered the form, she was also required to sleep on a cot in an empty classroom after being removed from female quarters, she said.

In its own filing, the Trump administration denied that Perelson was in the process of being separated. But in response to NCLR and GLAD's emergency motion to prevent Perelson's separation, the administration did agree to return her to the female barracks, according to a court filing.

NCLR and GLAD have requested an injunction to prevent a ban on transgender military service from taking effect while the lawsuit plays out.

The judge in the case, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Ana Reyes, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, gave the administration until Wednesday to file its response to the request for an injunction. A hearing on the injunction request is scheduled for Feb. 18.

Related: Navy Already Rejecting Transgender Recruits After Trump Order^[9]