Pentagon chief and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered to cut down 20 per cent of the active-duty four-star generals and admirals in the US military, officials said.
The move is the latest shakeup at the Pentagon under President Donald Trump’s administration, which has already fired a series of senior officers this year to cut the burden on the US Treasury.
The Memo from the Pentagon calls for an additional 10 per cent reduction in the number of general and flag officers and a 20 per cent cut in the number of general officers in the National Guard.
However, the memo did not specify how the Pentagon would accomplish such a reduction in the coming days.
As per reports, there were 38 four-star officers -- the highest rank that can usually be achieved in the US military -- and a total of 817 generals and admirals in the active-duty forces as of March 2025.
The cuts are aimed at removing "redundant force structure to optimise and streamline leadership by reducing excess general and flag officer positions," the memo said.
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Later on, Hegseth posted a video on X about the changes, which he dubbed "less generals, more GIs." In it, he said that despite the overall size of the military being far larger during World War II, there were fewer top officers at the time.
"This is not a slash-and-burn exercise meant to punish high-ranking officers," he said, adding, "This has been a deliberative process by working with the Joint Chiefs of Staff with one goal: maximising strategic readiness and operational effectiveness," he said.
During his confirmation hearing in January, Hegseth argued that the Pentagon's bureaucracy was top-heavy and in need of cuts, telling lawmakers, "It's going to be my job, working with those that we hire and those inside the administration, to identify those places where fat can be cut so it can go toward lethality."
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