Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is planning a massive overhaul of the U.S. military’s command structure, which would downgrade headquarters in Europe, Asia and Africa, according to a new report.
Defense officials are expected to provide details of the plan to Hegseth in the coming days, following a request he made this spring to improve how soldiers are controlled and commanded, people briefed on the matter told The Washington Post.
If implemented, the proposal would mark one of the most significant reorganizations of the Pentagon’s senior leadership in decades, fulfilling Hegseth’s pledge to challenge the status quo.
The move would align with other policies pursued by President Donald Trump’s administration that aim to redirect resources toward the Western Hemisphere, where the U.S. military is currently conducting a lethal campaign against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and ramping up pressure against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
A senior defense official told the Post that the plan is intended to speed up the decision-making process, noting that sweeping changes are needed to prevent “decay.”
A Defense Department official told The Independent that, as a matter of policy, the Pentagon will not comment “on leaked documents that we cannot authenticate and rumored internal discussions.” The official added that “any insinuation there is a divide within the Department is completely false – everyone in the Department is working to achieve the same goal under this administration.”
The plan would reduce the importance of U.S. Central Command, U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command by placing them under a new umbrella organization which will be known as U.S. International Command, according the the report.
The proposal further seeks to place U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Southern Command — which handle operations in the Western Hemisphere — under the authority of a new headquarters which will be called U.S. Americas Command, or Americon for short, sources said.
Defense officials also talked about establishing a U.S. Arctic Command under the purview of Americon, but this change seems to have been scrapped.
Taken together, the reorganization would shrink the number of combatant commands from 11 to eight, while also reducing the number of four-star admirals and generals who answer directly to Hegseth.
The other existing commands would remain untouched. These are: U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, U.S. Space Command, U.S. Special Operations Command, U.S. Transportation Command and U.S. Strategic Command.
People with knowledge of the proposal told the Post that it compliments Trump’s recently released national security strategy, which took aim at long-established U.S. allies in Europe, claiming their governments are failing to uphold the will of their people. It also stated that the “days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over.”
Hegseth and the president himself would need to sign off on any changes.
Members of Congress have moved to require the Pentagon to provide a blueprint that would outline the cost and impact of such a plan on U.S. alliances. The requirement, including in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act, would bar funds from being used towards enacting the proposal for at least 60 days after the Defense Department hands over its blueprint to lawmakers.
Chuck Hagel, who led the Pentagon during former President Barack Obama’s administration, told the Post he had concerns with the proposed changes.
“The world isn’t getting any less complicated,” Hagel said. “You want commands that have the capability of heading off problems before they become big problems, and I think you lose some of that when you unify or consolidate too many.”
In recent decades, there have been several notable changes to the military’s command structure. In 2008, U.S. Africa Command was established as its own command, having previously operated under U.S. European Command. And U.S. Cyber Command was elevated to unified command status in 2018.
A Pentagon spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Independent.
The anticipated restructuring comes after Hegseth embarked on a campaign to cull top brass at the Pentagon. He’s forced out or fired nearly two dozen senior officials and told those remaining to “do the honorable thing and resign” if they are opposed to the administration’s policies.
Hegseth has also found himself dogged by controversy over his handling of the U.S. military’s lethal campaign against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean. A September 2 attack, which included a follow-up strike on survivors, has faced the most scrutiny and resulted in a congressional investigation.
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