The Pentagon announced Friday it has begun laying off 46,000 temporary and contract workers and delaying maintenance on aircraft and ships in preparation for federal budget cuts.

The Pentagon's deputy defense secretary, Ashton Carter, says the Pentagon is also planning for furloughs for its permanent civilian staff and to defer maintenance on weapons and other military equipment, according to the Associated Press.

The Pentagon is facing almost $50 billion in cuts in 2012 unless the U.S. Congress can agree on an alternative package of spending reductions. The budget cuts are set to go into effect on March 1.

The Pentagon also plans to formally notify Congress in the next few weeks that if further budget cuts take place on March 1, it will furlough most of its 800,000 full-time civilian employees, he added.

"Obviously this is a terrible thing to have to do to our employees and to the mission," Carter said. "But it's necessary because it'll save $5 billion and we have to find that money."

The large, automatic spending cuts, which include reductions in domestic spending, are called "sequestration" and are required under a deficit reduction agreement reached in 2011. 

The Pentagon's 46,000 temporary and contract employees are "all now subject to release," Carter said, meaning they will either be let go now or will not have their contracts extended. The only exception would be if they are performing jobs critical to the war or the department's basic mission.

The department also is cutting back on base and equipment maintenance, which costs about $15 billion per year. He said the Navy would cancel maintenance on 30 ships that had been planned for the third and fourth quarters this year.