Top heavy: U.S. military bloated by brass as officer-to-enlisted ratio dwarfs Cold War era
By Ben Wolfgang - The Washington Times - Sunday, January 29, 2023
Some Republicans looking for cuts in the massive U.S. military budget want to start at the top.
Key congressional leaders have floated the idea of trimming the number of generals and admirals in the armed forces. They say the ratio of high-ranking officers to enlisted personnel has ballooned out of control and might impede the readiness of the fighting force.
The roughly 900 generals and admirals on active duty today is far fewer than it was in past eras, but the percentage of those officers compared with the number of enlisted troops is near the highest level in modern military history, according to Congressional Research Service data.
Some analysts caution that merely pushing top officers into early retirement wou mands or operations they lead could result in more savings, but that type of broad dismantling of military infrastructure would raise a new set of questions with significant national security implications.
Still, some Republicans say the issue deserves a fresh look. They say the Defense Department has proved itself ill-equipped to properly spend the roughly $847 billion allocated in the most recent defense budget bill.
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