Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to call for a 20 percent reduction in the number of generals and admirals in the U.S. military on Wednesday, a Pentagon official told CBS News.
The announcement is expected to come during a rare speech to military officers at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. This is the latest move by Hegseth to change the structure of the military, particularly at its highest levels.
Fox News was the first to announce the planned cuts.
In May 2025, Hegseth ordered that at least 10 percent of all general and general officers be eliminated, as well as 20 percent of the general officers of the National Guard. In a one-page memo published on the Defense Department’s website, Hegseth said at the time that the cuts were necessary to “drive innovation and operational excellence.”
He argued that the military should not be encumbered with unnecessary bureaucratic layers that hamper its growth and effectiveness, and that the key to achieving this would be to “remove redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership by reducing surplus positions of generals and flag officers.”
As of July, there were 851 generals and admirals on active duty in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force, according to a Defense Department tally. A year earlier, there were 848 general and general officers. Federal law caps this number at 857.
Wednesday’s speech comes exactly one year after Hegseth summoned hundreds of generals and admirals from around the world at Quantico, where he denounced the “woke” norms and “toxic leaders” of the Department of Defense. He also called for tougher standards, attacking “fat generals and admirals” and bearded military personnel.
HAS at least 20 generals, admirals and civilian military leaders have been fired or resigned from their positions since Hegseth became secretary of Defense, including chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and senior uniformed officials from the Army, Navy and Air Force. The secretaries of the Army and Navy, two civilian positions, were also replaced.
A former National Guard infantry officer and Fox News host, Hegseth frequently criticized senior military leaders before becoming the military’s top civilian leader, portraying them as insufficiently supportive of front-line troops and too focused on diversity initiatives.
There is debate over whether the military has too many generals and admirals, notes a May Congressional Research Service report.
Critics argue that adding too many high-level officers can slow down decision-making and make the military too bureaucratic. But others counter that senior leaders are needed to oversee coalitions with other countries’ militaries, manage technological changes and manage an increasingly complex Defense Department.
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona told reporters Tuesday that Hegseth was “purging the upper echelons of the military of its top leaders.”
“We need strong leaders. These people have decades of experience, some of the best leaders our military has ever had. He’s getting rid of them,” Kelly said.
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