Pentagon Chief Orders Reforms at Service Academies After Damning Sexual Assault Report

Last week, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered superintendents of military service academies to address increasing reports of sexual assault after the Pentagon's biennial survey on harassment and assault showed that nearly 9% of future officers reported unwanted sexual contact between 2021 and 2022.

To better evaluate current service academy policies, Austin also ordered "on-site installation evaluations" to be completed before the end of next month. The order -- and report -- come on the heels of another Defense Department report that showed 8.4% of female service members reported experiencing sexual assault in 2021, the highest levels in more than a decade. The recent report said that 21.4% of service academy women and 4.4% of men experienced unwanted sexual contact.