Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's call to slash the size of the U.S. military's top brass is sparking concerns among experts that the purge is being done without regard for losing institutional knowledge and could be politically motivated.
"We’re very concerned, especially with this administration, that this could easily turn into political testing or otherwise clearing out the ranks for political reasons," Greg Williams, the director of defense information at Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog organization, told The Hill, the outlet reported Saturday.
This past Monday, Hegseth ordered 20% cuts to the top military leadership positions, saying the cuts will remove "redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership."
The plan could remove nearly 100 generals and admirals, at a time when there are 37 four-star generals and admirals and about 816 others who have at least one star.
"When a new administration comes in and makes a lot of changes, especially at the very top of the military ranks, especially for what are arguably very political reasons — are these officers ‘woke or or not?’ — that raises the concern that we’re undermining that nonpartisan tradition," Williams commented.
Hegseth's plan also calls for a 20% reduction of National Guard generals and to eliminate the number of generals and admirals overall by at least 10%.
The secretary has spoken out before about cutting back the top staff, telling lawmakers during his confirmation hearing that while the U.S. only had seven four-star generals to help win World War II, "today we have 44 four-star generals."
Hegseth added that rather than having "more bureaucracy at the top" the country needs "more warfighters empowered at the bottom."
He has revised the argument since then on social media, saying it was 17 four- and five-star generals overseeing 12 million troops, compared to 44 four-star generals and admirals overseeing the current force of 2.1 million.
There has been no timeline given for the cuts, which will be made in two phases.
The first phase focuses on cutting the active duty four-star generals and admirals first, followed by the cuts later to scale back the numbers of officers ranked one star and higher.
Meanwhile, there are 816 officers ranked with one star or above, while law authorizes 857 to hold the ranks.
Hegseth has also called to remove what he called "woke" officers from the military. Last June, well before taking office, he said he thought that at least a third of the officers in the military are "actively complicit" in allowing diversity initiatives to hinder combat operations.
Retired U.S. Marine Corps. Col. Mark Cancian, who is now a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, commented that cutting four-star positions will mean reductions of forces down the line, as positions would be eliminated when staffs are consolidated.
He also said that Hegseth's argument comparing today's numbers to the past doesn't work.
"If you look at the dollars that generals oversee, that has not changed from WWII to today," said Cancian. "Generals command fewer people but forces are much more capital intensive, the operations are much more intensive, and there’s more civilians too. You put all that together, there is no bloat, it’s about the same."