US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has confirmed that the military will eliminate 20 percent of its generals and admirals by January 1, 2027, announcing the measure during his annual "State of the Force" address.
Speaking to junior officers and enlisted personnel at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, Hegseth directed all armed services to double the 10 percent reduction originally ordered last spring across roughly 800 flag and general officer posts.
"I call it accountability and long overdue," Hegseth said, arguing the cuts will remove "redundant force structure to optimise and streamline leadership" and eliminate unnecessary bureaucratic layers.
The announcement comes amidst a broader cultural overhaul directed by the Pentagon chief, including rolling back diversity programmes, reviewing ground combat units with female service personnel, introducing testosterone screening for male troops, and enforcing a ban on transgender service members alongside male-level physical fitness criteria.
Congressional backlash
The aggressive restructuring drew immediate condemnation from Capitol Hill, where several senators described the move as an institutional purge.
"He's got some kind of like deep-seated grievance about leadership in the military," said Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a former Navy combat pilot.
"He's purging a generation of great leaders of the military, and it's going to take a generation to recover from it."
Republican Senator Mike Rounds of the Armed Services Committee voiced caution, noting: "If it's simply a matter of eliminating a very heavy top, there may be some validity to it, but I want to see it first."
The administration has already dismissed or forced the retirement of more than two dozen high-ranking commanders, including Army Chief of Staff General Randy George, Joint Chiefs Chairman General CQ Brown, Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti, and NATO representative Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield.
While no formal rationale was given, most dismissals were linked to previous endorsements of diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Under statutory rules, general officer quotas are established by law, though posts can be left vacant simply by withholding nominee submissions from Congress.
