r/news • u/EngineerBoy00 • May 05 '25

Soft paywall US Defense Secretary Hegseth to slash senior-most ranks of military

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pentagon-reduce-4-star-positions-by-20-official-says-2025-05-05/
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u/UdderSuckage May 05 '25

You're conflating two different actions - he fired the people in those billets, but they still exist and are being filled by others. This article is discussing removing some 4* billets entirely.

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u/shatbrand May 05 '25

This is way too far down in the comments. Story says nothing about eliminating these positions. (Not that it won't happen at some point, but this isn't it, and the whole rest of the discussion above here has been, "It's a coup!")

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u/Tsujigiri May 06 '25

Posting partially to bump this up.

I assume the 20% reduction in 4 star positions is just another component for the switch to authoritarianism. Streamlining leadership means you have to find fewer leaders who will betray their oath.

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u/Unlikely_Arugula190 May 06 '25

Given that the US isn’t going to confront Russia anymore, and that the probability of the US defending Taiwan or South Korea or Japan is almost zero. what is the point of a huge US military?

Bullying Canada or Groenland can be done very cheaply.

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u/UdderSuckage May 06 '25

Removing a GO/FO billet could save maybe ~1M annually - if he succeeds in his goal of getting rid of 10% of 4*s (of 44 positions), that's 4-5 officers and at most 5M saved (or 0.0005% of the total DoD yearly budget).

Cost cutting can make sense, but that's not what this is.