Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is poised to announce a 20% reduction in authorized positions for general and flag officers during an address Wednesday to junior service members at Quantico, Virginia, according to two U.S. officials who spoke to Reuters on Tuesday.
Hegseth will outline his priorities for the force before an audience of hundreds of junior officers and enlisted personnel. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the secretary plans to cut billets for one- through four-star generals and admirals by 20%, doubling the minimum 10% reduction he proposed last year.
Rather than removing current officers, one official explained that the rank requirements for certain future positions would be downgraded while other billets would be eliminated entirely.
Separately on Tuesday, the Pentagon released a memo signed by Hegseth directing the Department of Defense to cease appointing civilians as tenured faculty at U.S. military service academies. The directive frames the move as an effort to refocus the academies on “warfighting.”
Hegseth has moved rapidly to reshape the department, dismissing senior officers across the services and addressing specific personnel matters. Last year, he ordered a 20% reduction in the number of four-star officers.
Wednesday’s event marks one year since Hegseth delivered a blistering critique of “fat generals” and diversity initiatives before an assembly of top military brass at Quantico.
Last year, President Donald Trump also addressed the same venue, suggesting the use of deployments to U.S. cities as “training grounds for our military.”
The appearances by Hegseth, a former Fox News host, and Trump, a former reality television star, carried the atmosphere of a televised production, with senior military leaders summoned on short notice.
Addressing an auditorium filled with flag officers flown in from around the globe, Hegseth defended his dismissal of top leaders—including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was Black, and the Chief of Naval Operations, who was a woman—characterizing them as part of a “broken culture.”
“If the words I’m speaking today are making your hearts sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” Hegseth told the assembled brass at the time.
