Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that he wanted to “rationalize leadership by reducing general surplus positions and flag officers” in the American army.
In a memo published on Monday, Hegseth said that he wanted to reduce the number of four -star positions in the army in active service and the number of general officers of the National Guard by at least 20%. He also called for a new reduction in general and the flag officers at least 10%.
“More generals and admirals are not equal to more success. Now, this is not a slash-and-brief exercise intended to punish high-ranking officers. Nothing could be further from the truth,” said HegSeth in a video he published on X on Monday.
Hegseth said that the proposed cuts were part of a “deliberative process” between his department and the chiefs of the general staff to maximize “strategic preparation and operational efficiency by carrying out prudent reductions in the general ranks and officers of the flag”.
Hegseth said in his video that the United States had “44 four-star and flag officers,” compared to the Second World War, when the United States had “17 four and five-star generals”.
The American army had 37 four -star officers in September 2023, according to a Congressal Research Service report published in March 2024.
This is not the first time that Hegseth has been looking to reduce defense expenses.
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In March, Hegseth said that the Defense Ministry ended more than $ 580 million in programs, contracts and grants that Elon Musk cost reduction, Doge identified as unnecessary expenses.
Musk had previously targeted the budget of $ 841 billion from the Ministry of Defense in an editorial which he co-written with Vivek Ramaswamy for the Wall Street Journal in November. Ramaswamy was co-leader of Doge at the time, but left Doge in January.
“The Pentagon recently failed its seventh consecutive audit, suggesting that the agency management has little idea that its annual budget of more than $ 800 billion is spent,” wrote Musk and Ramaswamy.
Last month, Hegseth said the Pentagon would reduce its IT contracts and consult with companies like Accenture and Deloitte. He said contracts “represent $ 5.1 billion in unnecessary expenses” and that the reduced would cause savings of almost $ 4 billion.
“We would therefore like to thank our friends from Doge. We would like to thank all the people here who helped us unpack this, to reveal it, and we are delighted to make these cuts on behalf of you, the taxpayer and the combatants of the department,” said Hegseth in a video on X where he announced the contractual endings.
The Ministry of Defense did not respond to a request for comments from Business Insider.
