Nicolai Haugsted
Pete Hegseth wants to remove hundreds of star-ranked positions as his military leadership purge continues.
Pete Hegseth has spent much of his tenure making it clear that the Pentagon’s upper floors are not protected territory.
Generals have been dismissed, promotions have stalled and senior commanders have been told that embracing the defense secretary’s overhaul is very much part of the job description.
Now Hegseth is preparing to go considerably further, according to The Hill.
The defense secretary is expected to announce Wednesday that the US military will cut the number of positions reserved for generals and admirals by 20 percent, doubling the broader reduction he ordered last year. The services are expected to complete the changes by January 1, 2027.
The announcement is expected during Hegseth’s State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.
The stars are coming off some jobs
Twenty percent sounds like a particularly dramatic number when generals and admirals are involved, but the plan does not mean that one out of every five senior officers will immediately receive marching orders.
Hegseth is targeting billets — military positions designated for officers holding particular ranks.
Some jobs currently requiring a general or admiral will instead be downgraded so that they can be filled by lower-ranking officers, including Army or Air Force colonels and Navy captains. Other billets are expected to disappear altogether.
Pentagon officials say the objective is to reduce layers of senior management and move authority farther down the chain of command.
Federal law currently authorizes as many as 857 active-duty general and flag officer billets across the military.
Hegseth already started trimming the top
Wednesday’s expected announcement is less a new direction than a much larger helping of something Hegseth has already been serving.
Last year, he ordered an overall reduction of at least 10 percent in general and flag officer positions as part of his effort to reorganize military leadership.
His earlier directive separately called for at least 20 percent fewer active-duty four-star positions and a minimum 20 percent reduction in National Guard general officers. Hegseth told Congress that unnecessary bureaucratic layers were hindering senior leaders and military effectiveness.
The latest target effectively doubles the broader 10 percent goal.
Army, Navy and Air Force leadership, along with officials responsible for joint positions spanning multiple services, will now have to determine which jobs still require stars on the uniform.
Plenty of senior officers have already left
Organizational charts tell only part of the story.
Hegseth and President Donald Trump have already fired or pushed out more than two dozen senior military leaders since the administration took office, including some of the most prominent officers in the armed forces.
Former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown and former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti were among the early departures. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George was subsequently removed as Hegseth continued reshaping senior leadership.
Critics, including lawmakers and former defense officials, have questioned whether the rapid turnover risks politicizing the officer corps or removing too much experience from the military’s highest levels. Supporters of reducing the number of senior posts argue that America’s armed forces have accumulated too many headquarters positions and layers of bureaucracy over the years.
Quantico gets another Hegseth reset
Hegseth has chosen familiar territory for the announcement.
Last September, he summoned hundreds of generals and admirals to Quantico for a highly unusual gathering devoted to his vision for the military.
His message to officers who disliked that vision was not particularly difficult to decipher.
“If the words I’m speaking today are making your hearts sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” Hegseth said at the time.
Fitness, grooming and what Hegseth regards as a renewed focus on combat readiness featured heavily in that speech.
The Pentagon has spent the following year implementing stricter physical standards and grooming requirements while Hegseth has continued removing senior officers he believes do not fit his direction for the force.
Wednesday’s audience will look rather different.
Hundreds of junior officers and enlisted leaders are expected at Quantico rather than a room dominated by the military’s most senior brass.
Now comes the difficult part
Removing stars from an organizational chart is considerably easier than deciding which jobs can operate without them.
Military leaders must determine which commands can be downgraded or eliminated without weakening oversight or complicating ongoing operations.
Questions are particularly sensitive while US forces remain engaged in the Iran war. Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has argued that Congress should have greater involvement in Hegseth’s restructuring and warned against disrupting military leadership during active operations.
Hegseth has presented the broader reduction effort differently, arguing that fewer bureaucratic layers can produce a military more focused on warfighting.
The Pentagon’s senior ranks have already spent more than a year discovering how serious he is about remaking their world.
Now some of the jobs themselves are losing their stars.
