Congress has begun considering the issue of whether the U.S. military has too many high-ranking officers for a shrinking enlisted corps.

 

There are 964 flag and general officers in the armed services today, compared to 1,017 when the Cold War ended. But the overall force size has dropped by 600,000, causing an increase in the top-officer-to-soldier ratio.

 

“The average general and admiral has nearly 500 fewer uniformed personnel under command today than in 1991,” Ben Freeman of the Project on Government Oversight, a federal watchdog group, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “This progression towards a more top-heavy force is not without consequences. The cost of officers increases markedly with their rank, so taxpayers are overpaying whenever a general or flag officer is in a position that could be filled by a lower-ranking officer.”

 

In response to the criticism, the Department of Defense has pointed out that 103 positions will be eliminated, 50 in the next two years, as the military adjusts to the winding down of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and prepares for shrinking defense budgets.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Testimony of Benjamin Freeman, Ph.D., POGO's National Security Fellow before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Personnel on “General and Flag Officer Requirements” (Project on Government Oversight)

Watchdog Group: Too Many Generals, Admirals (by Rick Maze, Army Times)

Does the Air Force Have Too Many Generals? (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)