However, The Corps Actually Lost Fewer Aircraft

The U.S. Marine Corps is experiencing Class A aviation accidents, defined as those involving loss of life or damage of over $1 million, can be as much as 670 percent higher than the Class A accident rate for the U.S. Navy, according to analysis from BreakingDefense.com.

And, data from the DOD provided to the website indicates that in the last six years, 62 Marines have been fatally injured in aviation accidents, compared to just 10 for the Navy.

A lot of factors are involved in that number, according to the report. The USMC often flies older aircraft. And, since the Marine Corps is largely a ground-troop-based service, their aircraft carry far more personnel than do the Navy's airplanes, and don't give the occupants and opportunity to eject should something go wrong.

When it comes to fighter aircraft, the Marines opted 20 years ago to stay with their legacy F/A-18 Hornets and wait for the F-35 JSF to become ready for combat. While the first squadron of the F-35Bs were declared war-ready in 2015, the F/A-18s and Harrier Jump Jets have not aged well, according to the report.

The accident rate has led to rolling safety stand-downs across all Marine aviation units this year. Some in Congress have said that insufficient training and readiness is at least partially to blame for the accident rate. But the bottom line is, there are a number of factors at play, and the current Marines may be feeling the effects of decisions made in some cases before they were born.

(Image from file)

FMI: Original Report