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Lawmakers, Pentagon look at admiral numbers

At the close of World War II, the Navy had about 130 ships for every admiral in the flag ranks.

Today, that ratio is closer to one ship for every admiral.

What happened?

Repeated drawdowns targeting mostly enlisted billets have left the Navy’s top leaders virtually untouched. And that’s created a bureaucratic leviathan, with many flag officers spending most of their time presiding over sprawling staffs churning out paperwork and PowerPoint slides.

Related story: Gates to kill JFCOM, cut general officer billets

For example, an internal Pentagon study found about 30 layers of bureaucracy between the Navy secretary and an action officer in the operational fleet.

“Consider that a request for a dog-handling team in Afghanistan — or for any other unit — has to go through no fewer than five four-star headquarters in order to be processed, validated and eventually dealt with,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in May.

Since 2003, the Navy’s active-duty end strength has dropped from about 380,000 to about 330,000, a reduction of about 15 percent. And yet, the size of the admiralty has grown from 271 in 2001 to 275 last year, according to the U.S. Naval Institute, which maintains a running tally.

Now, Gates and others may be setting their sights on flag officers. Two wars and tightening defense budgets have prompted the Pentagon to look at trimming the ranks of flag officers and other high-level officials as a way to save money.

“How many of our headquarters and secretariats are primarily in the business of reporting to or supervising other headquarters and secretariats, as opposed to overseeing activity related to real-world needs and missions?” Gates said May 8 at the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kan.

Pressure is coming from Capitol Hill, too. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a former Navy secretary, asked the Pentagon to explain what, exactly, all those admirals are doing.

“I would like to better educate myself as to what these responsibilities are. Where are these people who are now being used in flag billets?” Webb asked several military officials April 28.

Inside the Navy, top-level officials are talking about, if not cutting flag officers, at least examining their staffs.

“Have flag staffs gotten excessive? Is there room to cut there? That’s a discussion we have to have,” Juan Garcia, the assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower and reserve affairs, told Navy Times in a recent interview. “I don’t think every flag officer staff is fat, but that makes sense as a place to start.”

The Navy’s top jobs are coming under scrutiny regardless of the sensitive politics involved.

“We need to slaughter some sacred cows,” said Arnold Punaro, a retired Marine Corps two-star general and member of the Defense Business Board, which advises military leaders on management practices. “When it comes to looking at DoD’s overhead, it’s a target-rich environment.”

Top-heavy force?

Admirals are not cheap. The Navy estimates that each admiral costs about $230,000 each year in salary and benefits. That’s at least $53 million a year for the entire active-duty flag-level officer corps, not including offices, staffs, vehicles, travel budgets and other costs tied to high-ranking officials.

But the real cost may be in efficiency lost and patience worn thin among the fleet at large.

“The average service member is very frustrated by the bureaucracy. Find me one person who says, ‘Please assign me to a headquarters staff.’ People don’t like working in the rear because of the bureaucracy and red tape,” Punaro said.

“They deserve a better organization that’s better able to bring their innovative ideas to bear on senior decision-makers.”

The top-heavy management can slow down decision-making.

“Things move slower” when there are several admirals in the same command, said one recently retired Navy captain. “They are always worried about stepping on each other’s toes.”

Part of the growth in recent years stems from the Pentagon’s requirement to fill joint billets. In addition, newly created billets related to counterpiracy, cyberwarfare and expeditionary commands have created new slots for admirals.

Yet it’s hard to believe the benefits of more flag officers outweigh the disadvantages, Punaro said.

“I don’t know of any organization that improves efficiency by adding senior people on the top,” he said.

Who’ll get the ax?

Politically, it’s much harder to cut a few dozen admirals from the ranks than thousands of sailors.

“Who decides how many admirals there are? The admirals do,” the retired captain said.

While the number of admirals is dictated by Congress, the Pentagon’s leadership sets the “validated requirement” for flag officers. The legal cap for admirals is 283, but the Navy has more than 300 flag billets, some of which are filled by captains who have been selected for promotion to rear admiral, Navy records show.

If and when the cuts come, there are some obvious options: Pentagon staffs, for one.

“Think about all the one-stars in the Navy. You could probably sort them into fleet positions and staff positions. I think you would start to look at the staffs and find some places to cut,” said Lawrence Hanser, a psychologist with Rand Corp. who studies flag officers.

Other billets could be ripe for demotion. For example, Craig Hooper, a Navy expert and defense analyst in San Francisco, wondered why the chief of chaplains needs to be a two-star billet with two flag-level deputies.

Or, Hooper said, why is the superintendent of the Naval Academy a vice admiral?

“A service academy in the hands of an active, [more] junior officer would do the nation good,” he said.

The “rank inflation” or “brass creep” in the Navy bureaucracy can seem counterintuitive for a service that traditionally empowers younger officers and senior sailors in the operational fleet.

“In the Navy, you have commanders commanding ships and submarines, and they’re out on their own for six months. People trust them to make good decisions. Why is it when they get back to the Pentagon, we can’t trust them?” Hooper asked.

Downgrading billets

A 2004 Government Accountability Office report identified 37 flag or general billets that could be downgraded. Navy billets mentioned in the report included:

• President, Naval War College: 0-9 to 0-8 (currently filled by a two-star admiral).

• Commandant, Naval District Washington: 0-8 to 0-7.

• Deputy commander, Pacific Fleet: 0-8 to 0-7.

• Deputy commander for resources and readiness, U.S. Naval Forces Europe: 0-8 to 0-7.

• Deputy commander, Naval Air Force Pacific: 0-7 to 0-6.

Lance M. Bacon contributed to this report.

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