Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth will meet with high navy leaders subsequent week, the Pentagon confirmed Thursday, following a report that the uncommon gathering will embody lots of of generals and admirals.
“The Secretary of War will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell mentioned in an announcement to The Hill, providing no extra particulars.
The Washington Submit first reported that Hegseth earlier this week ordered lots of of the U.S. navy’s generals and admirals to collect on quick discover and with no said motive. The assembly is predicted to happen on Tuesday, Sept. 30 at a Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va., in line with the Submit.
Greater than a dozen folks accustomed to the matter informed the outlet that the directive was despatched to just about all the navy’s high commanders worldwide — all senior officers with the rank of brigadier normal or above, their Navy equal and their high enlisted advisers — roughly 800 generals or admirals.
The sudden confab has created confusion and alarm, as there has not been a protection secretary in latest historical past who has ordered such a lot of the navy’s high officers to collect like this.
The order additionally comes after the Trump administration has fired quite a few senior leaders this 12 months, and follows Hegseth’s directive to cut back the variety of normal officers by 20 % because the administration eyes modifications to the place troops are positioned throughout the globe.
Hegseth in Might ordered the variety of active-duty four-star generals and admirals within the U.S. navy and normal officers within the Nationwide Guard to be reduce by at the very least 20 %. He additionally desires the overall variety of normal and flag officers — these with the rank of 1 star or larger — throughout the navy to be slashed by 10 %.
The transfer would diminish the already small variety of four-star generals and admirals, placing the quantity at lower than 30, down from 37 as of 2023. It additionally would reduce the roughly 900 present normal and flag officers to south of 720.
Since February, the Trump administration has purged a number of senior navy management, together with former Joint Chiefs of Workers Chair Gen. CQ Brown, Navy Chief of Workers Adm. Lisa Franchetti, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan, Air Power Vice Chief of Workers Gen. James Slife, and others.
As well as, final month Hegseth fired Protection Intelligence Company Director Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, Navy Reserve Chief Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore, and Naval Particular Warfare Command head Rear Adm. Milton Sands.
Air Power Chief of Workers Gen. David Allvin, in the meantime, final month introduced he would retire in November after he was requested to step down.
Different massive modifications on the Pentagon embody a brand new nationwide protection technique that’s reportedly anticipated to make homeland protection the highest U.S. safety concern, changing China.
