Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will unveil plans to reduce the number of positions reserved for generals and admirals by 20% in a speech to U.S. service members on Sept. 30, according to Pentagon officials.
The reductions will double the 10% cut to general and flag officer positions that the Pentagon announced last year. Hegseth called the effort "less generals, more GIs."
"This is not a slash-and-burn exercise meant to punish high-ranking officers," Hegseth said in a video posted to social media in May 2025, describing the cuts as "prudent reductions in the general and flag officer ranks."
The armed services were instructed to complete the latest cuts by Jan. 1, 2027, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Fox News first reported
the plans.
The military had 809 active-duty generals and flag officers as of Sept. 30, 2023, 48 less than the maximum authorized by law, according to the Congressional Research Service. The number of top military leaders as a proportion of the military’s total force has significantly increased over the past six decades.
Hegseth and fellow critics of the large proportion of generals and admirals with a one-star rank or above claim that the increase represents administrative bloat and waste. Others argue that the number of generals and admirals is appropriate for a modern military that operates much differently than it did 60 years ago.
Hegseth will publicly announce the cuts in a speech to service members at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. Hegseth will use the address, billed by the Pentagon as the "State of the Force," to outline his priorities for the coming year.
The address comes exactly a year after Hegseth summoned roughly 800 generals and admirals from around the world to Quantico for a speech in which he declared that it was "unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon."
This year, the audience for Hegseth’s "State of the Force" will consist of rank-and-file troops instead of the military’s top brass.
On Sept. 29, Hegseth also directed military service academies to immediately halt the practice of appointing civilian academics to tenured positions. In academia, tenure is a permanent, indefinite employment status intended to ensure faculty members have academic freedom.
"To ensure our educational institutions remain firmly focused on this warfighting mission, we must address the structural mechanisms that have allowed civilian academic norms to dilute our focus on lethality," Hegseth wrote in a memo.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pete Hegseth to unveil plan cutting top military positions by 20%
