Hegseth announces new Pentagon battlefield test for promotions to general

The Pentagon is altering the promotion process to get to the rank of general in an effort to “cut bureaucracy and demand true meritocracy” across the senior ranks, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday.

In a video posted to the social platform X, Hegseth declared the Defense Department this year will roll out the Joint Warfighter Evaluation, a new battlefield-style assessment for eligible colonels and Navy captains. The evaluation is intended to screen the officers aimed for one-star general or admiral on “their ability to fight, adapt, and win,” according to Hegseth.

“While the backbone of our military is our [non-commissioned officers] and our petty officers, victory depends on the commanders who lead them,” Hegseth said in the video.

“America needs warfighters who can master a chaotic battle space,” he added, later noting that commanders should be chosen by “proven competence, not paper credential.”

He likened the new evaluation to the “Louisiana Maneuvers,” a mass series of military exercises done directly before the U.S. entered World War II, during which roughly 400,000 troops conducted a wargame to evaluate America’s training, logistics and commanders.

Hegseth said such testing brought out such leaders as former President Dwight Eisenhower, a five-star Army general who planned and carried out the Allied assault on the coast of Normandy and the liberation of Western Europe; Army Gen. Omar Bradley the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who eventually oversaw the U.S. military’s policy-making in the Korean War; and Adm. Chester Nimitz, who commanded Allied air, land, and sea in the Pacific theater during WWII.

The Joint Warfighter Evaluation “brings that standard to the modern multi-domain fight,” Hegseth said. “This evaluation is an objective equalizer. The scenario only cares about operational decisions under pressure.”

Hegseth said he had tasked Stu Scheller, the deputy chief of staff to the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, to lead the effort a year ago.

He did not go into details about what such testing will entail, but Fox News Digital reported that each military branch had its own version of the evaluation.

The Army will use a written assessment then a digital wargame; the Air Force and Space Force will require a two-hour online analysis test followed by a one-hour interactive simulation; the Navy will have officers travel to the Naval War College for a three-hour written assessment then a two-to-three-hour wargame; and the Marine Corps requires an eight-hour remote evaluation on an AI-enabled platform combining written assessments and situational judgment tests, according to the outlet.

The current system that is being phased out has promotion boards consider officers via their accumulated evaluations from their superiors throughout their careers.