The Air Force plans to eliminate all 10 civilian positions at the China Aerospace Studies Institute on Oct. 1, triggering a sharp dispute over whether the research center can continue operating.

The service says CASI’s mission will survive, while its director says removing the civilians will effectively end the institute.

CASI operates under Air University and publishes unclassified research about the People’s Liberation Army’s air, space and missile forces.

Its work has included reports, translations, reference materials and courses built around publicly available Chinese sources.

“As a part of the ongoing civilian restructure within Air Education and Training Command, civilian positions will no longer be assigned to China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI),” an Air Force spokesperson said.

“The CASI mission continues, with the organization leveraging assigned military service members to accomplish its objectives.”

The spokesperson said civilians affected by the restructuring will remain in their current positions until further notice and will be considered for reassignment.

That description stands in stark contrast to the assessment offered by CASI Director Brendan Mulvaney.

Mulvaney said eliminating every civilian billet would be “effectively ending CASI.” He said no military positions are affected, although the institute has only two master sergeant billets and a deputy position that has remained vacant for more than a year.

Asked what the cuts would mean for CASI’s research, Mulvaney said, “All of the research has always been done by the civilian personnel.”

The Air Force nevertheless maintains that assigned military members will carry the mission forward.

According to Mulvaney, the previous Air University commander made the decision before it was forwarded by Air Education and Training Command.

He said the action came under a requirement to reduce civilian jobs throughout the Department of the Air Force, with the quota originating from the service’s manpower and reserve affairs office.

Mulvaney said the cut “had nothing to do with CASI’s mission.” Instead, he said CASI was vulnerable because it does not produce professional military education students, which is Air University’s primary mission.

No replacement organization has been identified to assume CASI’s China aerospace research, according to Mulvaney.

He also said it remains unknown whether the institute’s reports, translations and course materials will stay publicly accessible or whether its website will remain online.

The cuts surfaced publicly Monday after a note from a CASI civilian circulated on social media.

The employee wrote that every civilian position would lose funding on Oct. 1 and that staff members would become “surplus federal employees,” the federal personnel term for employees whose positions are being eliminated.

The note called CASI’s future “uncertain,” adding that “CASI punched above its weight given our small team and budget.”

avy surface warfare officer Will Yale, who posted the note on X, wrote that it was “extremely unfortunate and regrettable” that the Department of the Air Force “has decided to shutter” CASI.

Yale described CASI as one of the most prominent organizations in its field and said it had “measurably increased knowledge about the PLA” inside and outside the federal government.

Naval War College professor and CASI associate Andrew Erickson said the development is “specific to CASI only.”

Mulvaney said the action does not affect the Navy’s China Maritime Studies Institute, the Army War College’s China Landpower Studies Center or the Marine Corps War College’s China Warfighting Initiative. CASI was established in 2017 and formally chartered on June 15, 2021, by then Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.

That charter directed CASI to study “everything that flies” in China and designated it as the Air Force’s leading center for examining China and its aerospace capabilities.

The institute maintains offices at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, and Fort McNair in Washington.

CASI’s research was unclassified by design, and its charter directed the institute to rely on publicly available native language sources and publish its findings.

The center translated PLA textbooks and doctrine, produced primers and operated a free three day PLA Fundamentals course that required no security clearance.

Its biennial CASI Conference, held in May at National Defense University, attracted more than 250 attendees and included the release of the fifth edition of the “PLA Aerospace Power” primer.

In 2025, nearly 80,000 people visited CASI’s website and downloaded more than 50,000 reports.

The site remained live and published a paper on Sept. 21 titled “From Vision to Vigilance: How Beijing’s Space-Science Roadmap Builds a Real-Time Kill Web.”

CASI had already lost staff during a War Department efficiency drive that eliminated its director of education and education program manager positions.

Ryan Fedasiuk, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, called the latest move “a devastating loss for the analytic community” and an “incomprehensible decision.”

For now, the Air Force insists CASI’s mission will continue, while Mulvaney maintains the civilians who always performed the research are being removed.