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>About 30 admirals are under investigation Couple of questions from a civilian. How many admirals the Navy has? How many they needed to win WWII? Is there a ti

>About 30 admirals are under investigation Couple of questions from a civilian. How many admirals the Navy has? How many they needed to win WWII? Is there a title inflation?

keketi 10y ago
According to Wikipedia[1] there is a cap of 160 flag officers in the US navy. Maybe someone can confirm if the admirals referenced in the article are such flag officers? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiral_(United_States)#Statutory_limits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiral_(United_States)#Statut...
- yompers888 10y ago
  Admirals (ranks O-7 through O-10) are a subset of flag officers in that flag officer is generic for admirals and generals both. As some others have mentioned, there are joint billets that don't count against these quotas. DIRNSA is one example, and one with some name recognition perhaps. Currently it's Admiral Rogers, though another recent person in this billet was General Alexander. NATO commands like SACEUR are another place where you'd find flag officers not included in these quotas.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
alricb 10y ago
As of December 2015 there were 217 flag officers in the Navy [1], meaning 1-star (rear-admiral, lower half, O-7, eq. to a brigadier general) to 4-star (admiral, O-10). You have 162 places for Navy flag officers, but you also have 61 spots for "joint duty" Naval flag officers [2]. There are fewer flag officers than there used to be, but the force is smaller, so the proportion is higher than it was back in the 60s and 70s. [1]: https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R44389.pdf https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R44389.pdf [2]: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/526 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/526
poof131 10y ago
I wouldn’t say there is title inflation as much as command inflation. The services fight over how many commands they have. This controls how many officers they can promote and how much budget they can request. Like other government agencies, the goal is the expansion of the bureaucracy’s influence and power. This is indirectly correlated to the number of commands. Although I’m not a fan of the current batch of senior leadership based upon my experience in the Navy and further illustrated by the evidence uncovered in the article, I wouldn’t say the people who are Admirals haven’t worked their way up to that title. The military is definitely top heavy due to the pension system, but not, in my opinion, due to title inflation as you would think of it in the civilian world.
hackuser 10y ago
On one hand, many in the world of foreign policy think the US military has become top heavy, and the number of admirals/generals is being cut back (I think both the Sec'y of Defense and congressional leaders are on board with this). On the other hand, executives serve an important purpose, and it's always easy to say 'there's too much bureaucracy' without actually having any idea how much bureaucracy is needed.
- chris11 10y ago
  And I've heard that US military doctrine is to focus more on reducing the number of enlisted and lower ranked soldiers than reducing the number of military leaders when becoming a peacetime army. Because it's easier to get inexperienced people than military leaders with years of service, and they will need those experienced leaders when they go to war.

>About 30 admirals are under investigation Couple of questions from a civilian. How many admirals the Navy has? How many they needed to win WWII? Is there a title inflation?

keketi 10y ago

According to Wikipedia[1] there is a cap of 160 flag officers in the US navy. Maybe someone can confirm if the admirals referenced in the article are such flag officers? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiral_(United_States)#Statutory_limits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiral_(United_States)#Statut...

yompers888 10y ago
Admirals (ranks O-7 through O-10) are a subset of flag officers in that flag officer is generic for admirals and generals both. As some others have mentioned, there are joint billets that don't count against these quotas. DIRNSA is one example, and one with some name recognition perhaps. Currently it's Admiral Rogers, though another recent person in this billet was General Alexander. NATO commands like SACEUR are another place where you'd find flag officers not included in these quotas.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

alricb 10y ago

As of December 2015 there were 217 flag officers in the Navy [1], meaning 1-star (rear-admiral, lower half, O-7, eq. to a brigadier general) to 4-star (admiral, O-10). You have 162 places for Navy flag officers, but you also have 61 spots for "joint duty" Naval flag officers [2]. There are fewer flag officers than there used to be, but the force is smaller, so the proportion is higher than it was back in the 60s and 70s. [1]: https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R44389.pdf https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R44389.pdf [2]: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/526 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/526

poof131 10y ago

I wouldn’t say there is title inflation as much as command inflation. The services fight over how many commands they have. This controls how many officers they can promote and how much budget they can request. Like other government agencies, the goal is the expansion of the bureaucracy’s influence and power. This is indirectly correlated to the number of commands. Although I’m not a fan of the current batch of senior leadership based upon my experience in the Navy and further illustrated by the evidence uncovered in the article, I wouldn’t say the people who are Admirals haven’t worked their way up to that title. The military is definitely top heavy due to the pension system, but not, in my opinion, due to title inflation as you would think of it in the civilian world.

hackuser 10y ago

On one hand, many in the world of foreign policy think the US military has become top heavy, and the number of admirals/generals is being cut back (I think both the Sec'y of Defense and congressional leaders are on board with this). On the other hand, executives serve an important purpose, and it's always easy to say 'there's too much bureaucracy' without actually having any idea how much bureaucracy is needed.

chris11 10y ago
And I've heard that US military doctrine is to focus more on reducing the number of enlisted and lower ranked soldiers than reducing the number of military leaders when becoming a peacetime army. Because it's easier to get inexperienced people than military leaders with years of service, and they will need those experienced leaders when they go to war.