Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's plans to slash the number of senior military leaders[1] across the services would cut more than 120 high-ranking officer jobs in the active duty and National Guard, including as many as nine top general slots.

Based on the percentages outlined by Hegseth and his senior staff, 20% of the 44 authorized top active duty general and admiral jobs would be eliminated, along with 10% of the more than 800 one-, two- and three-star positions, according to numbers compiled by The Associated Press.

The cuts — about nine positions among four-star generals and 80 jobs across the other leadership levels — would affect dozens of active duty officers scattered across the five services as well as those who are in joint command jobs, such as those overseeing Africa, the Middle East and Europe. The changes would eliminate 33 senior National Guard positions.

The cuts are part of a broader government-wide campaign to slash spending and personnel[2] across federal agencies that is being pushed by President Donald Trump’s administration and ally Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency[3].

According to Hegseth and others, the intent of the military job reductions isn't to reduce the overall size of the force but to thin out the higher ranks and offset those cuts with additional troops at lower levels. While the overall number of service members may not drop, the salary costs will be lower.

Some Democratic members of Congress have criticized Hegseth's plans as an attempt to politicize the military and oust leaders that don't agree with the Trump administration. The changes also come as the world is roiled by conflicts, including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and as the U.S. has troops deployed in Syria and elsewhere.

Shifting leadership responsibilities 

Military officials expect that as various jobs are downgraded — for example from a lieutenant general in charge to a major general or brigadier general — more leadership responsibilities will fall on colonels or Navy captains and other subordinates.

And while many of the job cuts will come through attrition, as senior officers retire or move on, the services say they will have the flexibility to move people into higher priority positions and get rid of less critical posts.

“More generals and admirals does not equal more success,” Hegseth said in a video describing his plan. “This is not a slash and burn exercise meant to punish high-ranking officers. Nothing could be further from the truth. This has been a deliberative process.”

Calling it the “Less Generals, More GIs” plan, he said the department will make “prudent reductions.”

How the cuts will hit the military services 

The Army, which is the largest service, is allowed to have a maximum of 219 high-ranking general officers and is expected to absorb a higher number of the cuts, while the Marine Corps will probably see little impact at the very top. There are only two Marine four-star generals, and the tiny Space Force also only has two.

“The Marine Corps, with our general officers, like our civilians and senior executives, is by far the leanest service," said Lt. Col. Josh Benson, a Marine spokesman. "Due to the already lean nature of the general officers in the Marine Corps, any cuts to Marine general officers will have an outsized impact to the Corps relative to other services.”

He said nearly one-third — or 21 — of Marine generals hold two or three jobs each, and as many as 10 positions are already empty.

Army leaders, meanwhile, have already developed plans to merge or close[4] headquarters units and staff. As many as 40 general officer slots could be cut as a result, officials have said.

The joint jobs would include leaders at regional commands, such as those in Europe, the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East, as well as administrative or functional commands, such as Cyber Command and Special Operations Command.

Under the law, there currently can be no more than 232 of those joint officers, and they're spread across all the services.

It's unclear how many of the cuts those jobs would absorb, versus the slots in each of the services. But officials have talked about merging some commands as the Pentagon reviews its overall leadership structure.

In addition to the joint command jobs, Congress stipulates the maximum number of high-ranking general officers in the services: 219 in the Army, 171 in the Air Force, 21 in the Space Force, 64 in the Marine Corps and 150 flag officers in the Navy.

All combined, the services can't have more than 27 four-star officers, 153 three stars, 239 two stars and 210 one stars.

National Guard review and cuts 

The decrease in the National Guard stems from a review done by Guard leaders last year that identified more than 30 positions that could be cut among the 133 general officer jobs spread out across the government. There are about 30 general officers in the National Guard Bureau headquarters staff, and the rest are assigned to jobs in other federal agencies, including the FBI, CIA and the military commands.

Guard officials described their plan to Hegseth and Pentagon leaders, and it was approved. According to officials, it would result in six jobs cut from Guard Bureau staff and the rest from other military and government posts.

The adjutants general who run the Guard in each state are chosen by and work for the governors and so are not part of any cuts. They are largely one- and two- star officers.

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Dr. Troy E. Meink appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee

The Air Force[1] has a new civilian leader after the Senate confirmed President Donald Trump's pick to be Air Force secretary, giving the Trump administration a full slate of service secretaries.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Senate voted 74-25 to confirm Troy Meink, who has been principal deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office since 2020.

Unlike Trump's other service secretaries, Meink brings an extensive military background to the role, garnering him considerable bipartisan support despite some questions that arose during the confirmation process about potential conflicts of interest. Still, all 25 "no" votes came from Democrats.

Read Next: Trump Orders VA to Build Homeless Veterans Center on West LA Campus[2]

With a recent history of focusing on space policy, Meink's selection was seen as a sign of Trump's elevation of space in national security policy. As the head of the Department of the Air Force, Meink will also oversee the Space Force[3], the creation of which Trump considers a signature achievement of his first term in office.

During his confirmation hearing, Meink made clear that growing the 5-year-old Space Force is one of his top priorities.

"Space is critical. This is actually one of the areas that we're most challenged, I believe, from the rapidly evolving threat from China and others," Meink said at his confirmation hearing in March[4]. "I think the key to both acquisition and operations is making sure you have the best talented workforce. These are some of the most complicated systems and, if the U.S. is going to maintain our advantage, which we need to do in space, we need to make sure we have the right workforce."

One of the first tasks facing Meink now that he's confirmed is a decision on the home of the Space Command headquarters, which has been at the center of a four-year battle[5] between Alabama and Colorado politicians. Alabama lawmakers have said they expect Trump will move the headquarters to their home state, reversing former President Joe Biden's decision to keep it in Colorado.

As Air Force secretary, Meink will also play a key role in shepherding Trump's Golden Dome project, the ill-defined concept for a space-based missile defense shield over the U.S.

Another major program on his plate will be the Air Force's first sixth-generation fighter jet, which entered a critical phase this year with the awarding of a contract to Boeing[6] to build the aircraft.

Meink joined the Air Force through the Reserve Officers' Training Corps program at South Dakota State University in 1988. His military career also included time as a KC-135 Stratotanker[7] navigator and instructor and as a lead test engineer for the Missile Defense Agency.

In between his current role at the National Reconnaissance Office, or NRO, and a previous stint there, he served as deputy under secretary of the Air Force for space during the Obama administration. As principal deputy director of the NRO, he has been responsible for day-to-day management of the office that oversees the U.S. intelligence community's network of spy satellites.

During the confirmation process, Meink faced questions about allegations of favoritism toward SpaceX, the company and government contractor owned by billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk.

In February, Reuters reported that a government watchdog[8] investigated allegations that Meink used his role at the NRO to steer a multibillion-dollar contract toward SpaceX.

In written answers to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Meink also revealed that Musk sat in on his interview for the Air Force secretary job, Politico reported last month[9].

Two Democratic members of the Senate Armed Services Committee pressed Meink on the Reuters report in a letter ahead of his confirmation hearing[10], but concerns about any ties to Musk were not raised at the hearing itself.

Related: Signal Scandal Overshadows Confirmation Hearing for Air Force Secretary, Other Top Pentagon Nominees[11]

© Copyright 2025 Military.com. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rebroadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Military.com, please submit your request here[12].

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