[UPDATE] Hegseth confirms a 20% cut in general and admiral posts, orders a four-star drone command and calls munitions reporting “treason”
The cut removes positions, not people: some jobs drop to colonel or Navy captain rank, and the services must finish by Jan. 1, 2027.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the cut on Wednesday, Sept. 30, in his second “State of the Force” speech at Quantico, Va. (TS: it's two rounds stacked: 10% ordered in May 2025, another 10% now, by Hegseth's own count) The latest Defense Department tally puts active-duty generals and admirals at more than 800, per the BBC. The brass. CBS News counts at least 20 generals, admirals and civilian military leaders who have been fired or have resigned under Hegseth. Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat, said Hegseth is “in the process of purging the upper echelon of the military from its best leaders.” The new offices. Hegseth announced an Autonomous Warfare Command (AUTOWARCOM) for drones and robot weapons. It will be led by a four-star officer, the military's top rank, and starts with a one-year trial called Project Agincourt. He also named Project Meridian, a 120-day study of future war led by Elon Musk, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. A new Office of Religious Affairs will report directly to him. The press. He said reporting on depleted munitions stockpiles was “a national betrayal. It's treason, actually.” What next. Hegseth's memo sets Oct. 1, 2027, as the target date to stand up the drone command. It says Congress must pass a law to give the command its own budget and power to buy weapons.
PREVIOUSLY
- Sept. 1 — Four four-star commanders reportedly objected to keeping 50,000-plus troops in the Middle East.
- Sept. 3 — The Pentagon pulled decades of defense-secretary orders off its classified network after reporting on those objections.
- Sept. 30, morning — Hegseth was reported ready to order general and admiral posts cut by Jan. 1, 2027.
What the Iran air campaign drained from the stockpiles Hegseth defended:
- Patriot interceptors fired in the 39-day Iran air campaign: 1,060-1,430, from a prewar stock of about 2,330 (CSIS, April 2026)
- Tomahawk cruise missiles fired: more than 1,000, from about 3,100 prewar (CSIS, May 2026); RTX now delivers about 60 a year
RELATED
Hegseth created a drone office in July that took buying power away from the military services
The memo that set up the office folded Joint Interagency Task Force 401 and the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group under it. The Sept. 30 memo tells its manager to draw up, within 30 days, a plan for absorbing the office into the new command.