The military services will have to cut 20% of the positions reserved for generals and admirals by Jan. 1, 2027, doubling the 10% reduction Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered last year, according to Pentagon officials. Hegseth is expected to announce the cuts Wednesday in a "State of the Force" address to troops at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.
Hegseth approved reduction plans for the Army, Navy and Air Force and for the military's pool of joint positions earlier this month, according to memos seen by Fox News Digital, which was first to report the new target on Tuesday. In a Sept. 16 memo covering the joint pool, he directed officials to set O-6 requirements for general and flag officer jobs identified for downgrade, opening those posts to colonels and Navy captains.
The target covers billets, the positions designated for generals and admirals, rather than a fifth of the officers now serving in those ranks, a Pentagon source told Fox News, which reported that at least some of the positions will be downgraded instead of eliminated. The services have already been shrinking their senior ranks partly by consolidating commands and organizations, ABC News reported, allowing one general or admiral to oversee some positions previously held by two.
A Defense Department tally counted 851 active-duty generals and admirals across the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force as of July, a handful below the 857 that federal law allows. The law fixes how many general officer positions exist, but the AP noted that posts can be left unfilled when no replacement is submitted to Congress.
Last year's directive, issued in May 2025, called for a 10% cut in general and flag officers across the force along with 20% reductions in active-duty four-star posts and National Guard general officers. Hegseth said at the time that he wanted to remove "redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership" and to free the military from "unnecessary bureaucratic layers." He called the effort "less generals, more GIs" and insisted it was "not a slash-and-burn exercise meant to punish high-ranking officers." The AP reported that it is unclear whether the four-star and National Guard reductions have all been carried out.
Wednesday's speech falls a year to the day after Hegseth brought hundreds of generals and admirals stationed around the globe to Quantico, where he took aim at "fat generals and admirals" and service members with beards. This time, commanders were asked to nominate mostly junior and mid-ranking troops to attend, and those selected must meet military fitness and body fat standards, which ABC described as a routine requirement for official travel and major events. Some of them are expected to join Hegseth for a workout.
Democrats in the Senate pushed back. Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, insisted that Congress be consulted before senior positions are eliminated and said the plan "should alarm every American." "Our military is conducting major operations around the world, and the force is already under strain," Reed said in a statement. "Eliminating senior positions and leaders now will add to that strain and disrupt command when continuity matters most." Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat, told reporters Tuesday that Hegseth was "in the process of purging the upper echelon of the military from its best leaders," CBS News reported.
The cuts follow heavy turnover in the military's senior leadership. Between them, President Donald Trump and Hegseth have fired or pushed to retire more than two dozen military leaders since taking office, including the Army's top uniformed officer, Gen. Randy George, who was removed in April. A Congressional Research Service report from May, cited by CBS News, notes that the right size for the senior officer corps is debated: critics say too many top officers slow decisions and make the military more bureaucratic, while others counter that senior leaders are needed to oversee coalitions with foreign militaries, keep up with technological change and run an increasingly complicated department. ABC News reported that it is unclear exactly how the cuts will be carried out, or whether a reduction this large in the middle of the Iran war would disrupt day-to-day operations.