U.S. particular operations forces want extra standardization to chop non-combat accidents, GAO says
Special operations troops such as Army Green Berets or Navy SEALs prepare for the most dangerous missions in the U.S. military through high-risk training that would wear down the most rugged outdoor adventurer.
But serious training accidents involving America’s commandos have raised questions about whether safety is sufficiently stressed.
In a new survey, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said about 80% of more than 3,600 reported on-duty, noncombat accidents in 2012 through 2022 involving special operations forces, or SOF, personnel happened in training activities. Almost half that number involved parachute and combat dive training.
“The data show that over 80% of training accidents were reported as due to human error,” analysts at the watchdog agency said this week in a report to Congress. “Factors that were commonly present and contributed to these accidents included failure to adhere to training standards and complacency.”
The U.S. Special Operations Command, which manages the special operations capabilities of the U.S. military, previously set up a formal program to standardize high-risk training across the services to help mitigate risk, GAO auditors said in their report.
SOCOM identified seven training areas as particularly high-risk, including parachuting, diving and urban combat. But the GAO said it has yet to analyze accident trends in these areas or others that may be high-risk to improve safety.
The policies of the special operations forces of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps vary in how each service complies with SOCOM’s seven oversight requirements for high-risk training. The GAO said not one of the services addressed all seven or set up milestones as a way to reach them in the future.
“SOCOM does not have ‘reasonable assurance’ of an effective approach to safety with standardized oversight across the service components to mitigate training risks,” the GAO said.
On Thursday, the GAO said it had yet to receive a response to its recommendations from the Defense Department.
