Star Gazing: Why Do We Have So Many Flag Officers?
October 7, 2019 Guest Author
By Captain James L. McClane, U.S. Navy (ret.) and Captain Kevin Eyer, U.S. Navy (ret.)
Introduction
It is entirely possible that the enormous superstructure of the Navy is actually working against maintaining an effective Fleet. We seem to be mired in a time in which counterproductive institutional incentives and dynamics have developed naturally in the absence of an existential threat to focus our efforts, such as a great power competitor. One of these unhelpful dynamics has been the explosion in the numbers of flag officers.
A cursory examination of the historical record makes clear that the number of flag officers serving in the United States Navy operates independently from either the number of ships in service or the number of personnel in uniform. Today, the number of flag officers seems to be more a political concoction or of runaway administrative outgrowth, but has little to do with the sea or the ability to sustain combat operations on it.
https://cimsec.org/star-gazing-why-do-we-have-so-many-flag-officers/41969
