Pentagon leadership is seeking a 20 percent reduction of four-star military officers and an overall 10 percent reduction of general officers, according to a Monday memo from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
The memo, titled “General/Flag Officer Reductions,” called for an overall reduction of 20 percent of four-star flag and general officers in the active force and 10 percent in the flag and general officer corps, reads the memo. Additionally, the memo calls for a 20 percent reduction of general officers in the Army and Air National Guard.
“More generals and admirals does not equal more success. Now this is not a slash and burn exercise meant to punish high-ranking officers,” Hegseth said in a video posted on X. “This has been a deliberative process, working with the Joint Chiefs of Staff with one goal, maximizing strategic readiness and operational effectiveness by making prudent reductions in the general and flag officer ranks.”
In the video message, Hegseth outlined two phases of the effort that he called “less generals, more G.I.s.” The first is a look at the current structure of the military services and the second is an evaluation of the Unified Command Plan.
“Phase two will produce a minimum of an additional 10 percent reduction of overall general and flag officers throughout the DoD in conjunction with a realignment of the Unified Command Plan.”
The Unified Command Plan is a classified document that’s drafted every two years by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The blueprint “assigns missions; planning, training, and operational responsibilities; and geographic areas of responsibilities to [Combatant Commands],” according to a summary of the document from the Congressional Research Service.
Hegseth said the new moves would be “the most comprehensive review since the Goldwater-Nichols defense reorganization act of 1986. That was a generational change in combat command structures, planning, training, geographic areas of responsibility, mission and operational responsibilities,” Hegseth said.
Neither Hegseth’s video message nor the memo provided a timeline for the effort.
The mechanism for the reductions is unclear. The number of flag and general officers in the military is set by Congress and outlined in Title 10 of the U.S. Code. There are five vacant four-star billets, including the Chief of Naval Operations following the February removal of Adm. Lisa Franchetti.
The U.S. currently has 37 four-star officers in the active force, including the Chief of the National Guard Bureau — the Army has 11, the Marines have three, the Navy has eight, the Space Force has three and the Air Force has 12. According to a 2024 Congressional Research Service report, the number of four-star officers in the U.S. military has been about 40 since 1965. As a percentage of the force, the general and flag officer proportion has risen from .048 percent in 1965 to just over .063 percent in 2023, according to CRS.
