United Launch Alliance (ULA), the former monopoly provider of launch services for the U.S. Air Force, has been forced to drastically slash the launch cost of its Atlas V rocket by about one-third following another contact loss to low-cost launch provider SpaceX.

Last month, ULA lost a $96.5 million Air Force contract to SpaceX to launch an Air Force global positioning system (GPS) satellite.

"It was a price-focused competition," said ULA CEO Tory Bruno.

Bruno said he later learned from the Air Force that SpaceX bid a far lower price than his company.

ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. ULA was formed in December 2006 by combining the teams at these companies which provide spacecraft launch services to the United States government.

ULA held a monopoly on military launches for more than a decade, until the Air Force awarded a GPS satellite contract to SpaceX in 2016.

The price slash means the price being charged for an Atlas 5 rocket launch in December 2016 -- some $109 million -- might now be about $70 million, which brings it quite close to the $62 million price tag that comes with the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

ULA, however, said at least half of the lost revenue will be offset by getting more favorable insurance rates and other factors, including an on-time launch.

The price cut also means ULA will have to undertake a series of cost reductions include trimming its workforce. ULA plans to cut as many as 875 jobs, or about one-quarter of its workforce, before the end of 2017.

"We're seeing that price is even more important than it had been in the past," said Bruno.

"We're dropping the cost of Atlas almost every day. Atlas is now down more than a third in its cost," he noted.