Hegseth Plans for Fewer Generals1 Fewer Civilians
By LTG Tom McInerney USAF (Ret) and MG Paul E Vallely US Army (Ret)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week ordered a broad restructuring of the U.S. Army that will trim the number of generals, merge headquarters commands and prioritize drone swarms needed to counter China’s growing military. Hegseth directed Army leaders in a memorandum Wednesday to streamline force structure and overcome “parochial interests” to rebuild the military’s largest branch.
“To build a leaner, more lethal force, the Army must transform at an accelerated pace by divesting outdated, redundant, and inefficient programs, as well as restructuring headquarters and acquisition systems,” Hegseth wrote.
The memo calls for the largest reorganization of the Army in many years, in part by shedding weapons and units that have long been part of its identity. Top priorities also include improving long-range precision fire and building a “Golden Dome” program intended to serve as a missile defense shield for the homeland.
In a memorandum on April 30, 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a broad restructuring of the Army. His directive calls for an improvement of long-range precision artillery fire. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes) Hegseth’s directive calls for big changes in how some fighting forces are organized. The service would reduce manned attack helicopter formations and augment those units with “inexpensive drone swarms capable of overwhelming adversaries.” The Army also would trim armor and other aviation units under the broad directive.
The service will be expected to increase its forward presence in the Indo-Pacific “by expanding pre-positioned stocks, rotational deployments, and exercises with allies and partners to enhance strategic access, basing, and overflight,” Hegseth said. The focus is in line with the Pentagon’s push to prioritize missions in the Pacific to counter China. The memorandum did not mention how operations in Europe would be affected or whether rotational deployments to the Continent were expected to continue. The Pentagon has stated that U.S. allies must carry the bulk of the security burden in Europe, freeing up the U.S. to do more in Asia.
The Army also will merge two four-star headquarters, Army Futures Command and the Training and Doctrine Command, into one. Futures Command, launched in 2018, was intended to help the Army gain a better view of its long-term needs. The necessity of a separate command to handle issues that previously were part of TRADOC’s mission was long debated in Army circles. U.S. Army North and U.S. Army South will be combined into a single headquarters focused on homeland defense and partnership with Western Hemisphere allies, the memorandum stated.
Consolidating and realigning headquarters and units within Army Materiel Command, including the integration of the Joint Munitions Command and Army Sustainment Command, are also part of the directive. Hegseth said the Army will reduce general officer positions in a manner that streamlines command structures “for the warfighter.” He didn’t detail how many general officer slots will be abolished. In the tactical realm, the Army should field long-range missiles capable of striking moving land and maritime targets by 2027, Hegseth said. The service also will improve counter-drone capabilities and integrate them into maneuver platoons by 2026 and maneuver companies by 2027, he said. Meanwhile, the Army should seek savings by canceling legacy systems, such as outdated manned aircraft and ground vehicles, the memorandum said.
Tens of thousands of civilian employees who work for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Space Force are voluntarily resigning as part of the Defense Department’s effort to trim its workforce, forcing the services to restructure to minimize operational gaps.
Personnel chiefs for each of the services told a House Armed Services Committee subpanel on Wednesday that they will feel an impact from the Pentagon’s deferred resignation program and early retirement initiative and are analyzing where the effects will be felt most. “The civilians maintain an important role for us, for our readiness, for our continuity,” said Lt. Gen. Brian Eifler, the Army’s deputy chief of staff for personnel. “We are doing some reorganization because of that. That’s something we’re looking closely at to make sure we don’t have a gap in our coverage as far as the mission is concerned.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the offers of voluntary separations last month and said mass reductions were necessary to put resources “in the areas where we need them most” and “supercharge our American warfighters.” Hegseth is aiming to cut the Pentagon’s nearly 900,000 civilians by about 60,000 people. About 21,000 employees volunteered for deferred resignations offered by the Office of Personnel Management earlier this year. The direct offer by the Defense Department found even more takers. About 16,000 civilians who work for the Army have signed up for deferred resignations, Eifler said, calling the number “significant.” The Air Force will be losing about 12,000 civilians, according to Lt. Gen. Caroline Miller, the service’s chief of staff for manpower and personnel.
The Navy and the Space Force are expecting to shed about 10% of their civilian personnel. About 1,600 civilians are resigning from the Marine Corps, including some “more senior, more experienced” staff, said Lt. Gen. Michael Borgschulte, deputy commandant for manpower and reserve affairs. “We’re looking at the impacts of what losing those individuals are and restructuring as appropriate to handle that challenge,” he said. Miller said she was worried about the effect the resignations will have on recruiting for the Air Force and other military branches. “If there is an uncertainty about coming into a service, on whether or not you’ll be able to maintain that position, that I think is going to impact,” she said. “We have done tons of work over the last several years to really express the goodness of our service … and a lot of it is job security.”
Vice Adm. Richard Cheeseman, deputy chief of naval operations for personnel, said he was particularly concerned about how the resignations could affect schools and payment systems for sailors. “We’ve done a lot of work in the last two years in modernizing our pay systems,” he said. “We are, as far as I’m concerned, the gold standard in getting paid transactions on and taking care of sailors. I don’t want to see any impact at all and we’ll be paying attention to that to make sure we mitigate appropriately.”
The Space Force, the military’s youngest and smallest service, is bracing for an outsize impact to its operations. About one-third of its 17,000-person force is made up of civilians and it relies heavily on the Air Force for support, said Katharine Kelley, deputy chief of space operations for human capital. “We have to look very carefully at how to mitigate that 10% [loss] and how to be very, very intentional about making sure that does not have a direct mission impact,” she said. “This is going to be a challenge for us.”2
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Star and Stripes, John Vandiver, 5.1.2025
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Stars and Stripes, Svetlana Shkolnikova, 4.30.2025
