The U.S. Air Force is closing its battlelabs due to "fiscal restraints," one service official says.

The battlelabs were designed and established in different functional areas to rapidly transition technologies to the field at low cost.

Seven separate battlelabs are shutting their doors in short order. Air Force Space Command closed the doors of its Air Force Space Battlelab at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., earlier this month, with seven of its 14 projects now shifting to the management of the Space Innovation and Development Center there.

Other battlelabs to stand down handled the following issues: air mobility at Ft. Dix, N.J.; command and control at Langley AFB, Va; air warfare at Mountain Home, Idaho; unmanned aerial vehicles at Creech AFB, Nev.; and force protection and information operations, both at Lackland AFB, Texas.

Air Force officials say the battlelabs' missions will be transferred to other organizations. Critics, however, are concerned that the focused, quick reaction culture of the battlelabs could be lost if overseen by too large a bureaucracy.

The closures are the latest sign of the increasing fiscal pressure facing the services at the Pentagon. The Air Force is also undergoing major manpower reductions to pay for its modernization projects.