When Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman addressed the graduating class of the Air Force Weapons School on June 13, he quietly put on display the new Space Force mess dress uniform.
The new black-tie formal garb will begin wear tests this fall, a Department of the Air Force spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. Volunteers for the wear tests recently completed fittings.
Saltzman has sported the uniform before, wearing it to the White House Correspondents Dinner in April. That event was disrupted and ultimately postponed by an assassination attempt on President Donald Trump, and the new uniform went unreported.
As modeled by Saltzman, the mess dress is black, with some unique features:
- Silver braid embroidered on the lower sleeve near the cuff to form a diamond, with the Space Force’s delta, globe, orbit, and polaris star in the center, and the polaris star in side loops.
- Black shoulder boards with silver braid formed to resemble the delta shape
- No lapels and silver buttons that rise almost to the collar, reflecting the cut of the Space Force’s service dress uniform
The look is a bold departure from the Air Force blue mess dress, with its simple silver braid around the cuffs and shoulder boards. But it’s also different from the mess dress Saltzman sported two years ago, which was all black with silver shoulder boards. That design, a spokesperson said at the time, was intended merely “to be more easily distinguished from the other services when representing the Space Force.”
This new design is still not finalized. “The CSO is wearing the first wear-test asset of the USSF Mess Dress, which is expected to enter formal wear testing in the fall,” the department spokesperson said. Factors ranging from production cost and wear will go into the final design choice.
“The Space Force is continuing to work with industry partners to determine production requirements and the timeline for service-wide availability,” the spokesperson said. “Guardians who volunteered and were selected as wear testers have recently completed their Mess Dress fittings. A mandatory wear date will not be established until the Mess Dress uniform is readily available to the force.”
Under the Space Force’s dress and appearance policy, the mess dress is worn at “official formal functions and occasions where a white and black-tie tuxedo or evening gown is the civilian equivalent.”
Officially, the Air Force mess dress is still optional for both enlisted and officer members, but once the new Space Force mess dress is approved and widely available, it will be required of all officers.
Maternity Uniforms
In addition to the Space Force mess dress, the Department of the Air Force also issued an update on its new maternity uniforms June 17. The Air Force’s new maternity wrap dress, unveiled last fall, can now be worn as part of the mess dress, semi-formal, and Class A service dress uniforms—not just the service dress uniform, as had been previously announced. It will have a mandatory wear date of July 2030.
The dress is now available at some Army & Air Force Exchange Service locations in the U.S. and will be fully stocked at all CONUS locations by the end of June. Overseas locations will get it in the coming months.
The Space Force is working on its own maternity uniform, which is expected to be available in 2027, according to the update. In the interim, pregnant Guardians may continue to wear the Air Force jumper.
