The Pentagon Is Cutting 20% of General and Admiral Positions by January 1, 2027: What It Changes for Military Pay, and What It Does Not

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on September 30, 2026, at his State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico, that the services will cut the positions reserved for generals and admirals by 20 percent by January 1, 2027. That doubles the 10 percent in his May 5, 2025 memo. On July 31 the services had 851 active-duty generals and admirals (Defense Manpower Data Center) against a ceiling of 857 set by Congress, so 20 percent is about 170 positions, leaving roughly 681. Some will be downgraded to O-6 (colonel, or captain in the Navy), the rest eliminated. It is a directive inside the limits Congress wrote; it changes no pay table, allowance or retirement rule for anyone else.

What was ordered, and when

• May 5, 2025. The memo "General/Flag Officer Reductions" directed "a minimum 20% reduction of 4-star positions across the Active Component; a minimum 20% reduction of general officers in the National Guard; and an additional minimum 10% reduction in general and flag officers with the realignment of the Unified Command Plan."
• September 2026. Hegseth approved reduction plans for the Army, Navy, Air Force and the joint pool, and a September 16 memo set O-6 requirements for positions marked for downgrade, so colonels and Navy captains fill jobs that carried a star (memos reported by Fox News, September 29).
• September 30, 2026. At the State of the Force address at Quantico, a year after the September 2025 gathering of hundreds of generals and admirals, Hegseth announced a "20% reduction across the board" in general officer slots, due January 1, 2027. "The media calls that a purge," he said. "I call it accountability and long overdue, and frankly, the bare minimum." (as reported live by MS NOW)
• What "cut" means. Reuters reported that the rank attached to future positions changes and some billets are cancelled; the officers holding them are not necessarily fired; a general whose billet becomes an O-6 job is reassigned or retires.

How many generals and admirals there are

The last row is arithmetic, not the plan; the split by service and joint pool is unpublished. For scale, 851 generals and admirals are 0.065 percent of 1,318,300 people on active duty, and 11,012 colonels and Navy captains are available for downgraded jobs.

Congress sets the ceiling; the Secretary is going below it

Federal law caps generals and admirals two ways. Section 526(a) of Title 10 limits each service (the numbers in the table), and section 526(b) lets the Secretary exclude up to 232 joint-duty positions, for the 857 total. Section 525 caps each grade inside those numbers: the Army may have 8 four-stars, the Navy 6, the Marine Corps 2. The FY2026 NDAA (P.L. 119-60, section 502) moved three slots from the Air Force to the Space Force and otherwise left the ceilings alone. They are maximums. Nothing stops the executive branch from filling fewer, which is what the memo does; Congress would have to change the law to force the number back up, or to lock the cut in.

The same NDAA (section 911) now requires the President to tell Congress within five days, with a reason, when a Joint Chiefs member or combatant commander is removed. Senator Jack Reed, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said of the May 2025 memo that "tough personnel decisions should be based on facts and analysis, not arbitrary percentages," and on September 29, in a statement reported by the Associated Press, that "the size and structure of our military's senior officer corps are matters in which Congress has a fundamental role."

What a star costs next to an eagle, on the 2026 tables

Downgrading a billet from O-7 to O-6 changes the basic pay attached to it. Both grades sit under a legal cap (37 U.S.C. 203(a)(2)): O-7 through O-10 cannot exceed Executive Schedule Level II, $18,999.90 a month in 2026; everyone else, Level V, $15,408.30. That is why every O-9 and O-10 earns $18,999.90 at any year of service and an O-8 reaches it at 22 years. From the 2026 DFAS table in our basic pay calculator:

At 26 and 28 years the gap is $1,715.70 a month, $20,588.40 a year. BAH barely moves: across all 368 military housing areas the with-dependents rate for an O-7 is only $6 to $72 a month above an O-6, median $21; at the Pentagon (Washington, DC metro area, MHA DC053) it is $39, $4,770.00 against $4,731.00. Check any station on the BAH comparison tool; BAS is one officer rate at every grade.

The Congressional Research Service puts 2026 regular military compensation (basic pay, BAH, BAS and the tax advantage on the allowances) at about $272,802 for an O-7 and $237,978 for an O-6, a gap of $34,824; an O-10 is about $296,539. If all 170 positions were downgraded rather than eliminated, the direct compensation difference would be about $5,920,080 a year. CRS notes a general's larger costs sit outside that figure: staffs, travel and security details. The savings are small; the memo's stated point is fewer "bureaucratic layers."

What it means for you

• Your pay does not change. The 2026 tables, BAH, BAS, DLA, per diem and special pays come from other laws and regulations. The January 2027 raise is a separate fight; see what the 2027 pay raise is worth by rank.
• Lieutenant colonels, commanders, colonels and captains feel it most: fewer O-7 billets means fewer one-star selections, and colonels will hold jobs that carried a star at O-6 pay. Our officer promotion timeline shows the statutory windows.
• Enlisted grades are untouched. Nothing in the memo or the plans changes E-9 billets, pay or promotion.
• National Guard general officers were cut 20 percent under the 2025 memo; the new target covers the active services and the joint pool.
• Check your LES anyway. Due a promotion or a rate change this fall? Run it through the LES auditor.

For the officers whose billets go away

Every officer above O-3 needs three years of service in grade to retire in that grade (10 U.S.C. 1370(b)). The Secretary of Defense may reduce that to two years case by case, and for one- and two-stars the number of reductions each fiscal year is capped at 10 percent of authorized strength in the grade. The FY2026 NDAA (section 505) raised that cap to 15 percent through September 30, 2027, a sign Congress expected more early general officer retirements. Three- and four-stars also need the Secretary's written certification to Congress to retire in grade.

The grade you retire in sets the pension. At 28 years, 2.5 percent a year gives 70 percent of the high-three average; on 2026 rates alone, retiring as an O-7 instead of an O-6 is worth $1,715.70 more a month in basic pay and about $1,200.99 more a month in retired pay for life. Run your own years on the High-3 calculator.

The historical picture

CRS counts 1,284 generals and admirals in a 2.66 million active force in 1965 (0.048 percent) and 848 in a 1.30 million force on September 30, 2025 (0.065 percent): fewer stars than the Cold War, a higher share. Congress made the last cut itself: the FY2017 NDAA (P.L. 114-328) lowered the section 526 ceilings effective January 1, 2023, after conferees noted the services had not carried out the reductions Secretary Gates ordered in 2011. This time the executive branch is moving first.

The bottom line

The order is real: 20 percent of general and admiral positions, about 170 of 851, by January 1, 2027, by downgrade or elimination, inside the 857-position law. Pay tables and allowances do not move. O-5s and O-6s face a narrower pyramid; O-7s and above face the retire-in-grade rules. Rates shown are FY2026 figures; always verify with your finance office before making financial decisions.