Sergeant Michael McClendon was charged this month with four violations of U.S. military law: indecent acts, dereliction in the performance of duty, cruelty and maltreatment, and actions prejudicial to good order and discipline, Army spokesman George Wright said.

Wright said McClendon was being investigated for possession of inappropriate images taken without consent. He did not elaborate.

The New York Times, which initially reported the incident, said the pictures included female cadets in the shower, which a defense official confirmed on condition of anonymity.

“The Army has notified those involved and offered support services at their individual locations,” Wright said. “It appears to be at least a dozen or more alleged victims who may have been photographed without their consent.”

McClendon, who had served at the prestigious military academy in New York, since 2009, was transferred to Fort Drum in New York after the charges were filed on May 14, Wright said.

McClendon served as a tactical noncommissioned officer at the academy, a job that put him in charge of mentoring and training a company of about 121 cadets, focusing on leadership development and other responsibilities.

General John Campbell, the Army’s vice chief of staff, said the service moved to address the situation at West Point as soon as the problem was reported.

“Our cadets must be confident that issues such as these are handled quickly and decisively, and that our system will hold those responsible accountable,” he said.

The report of charges against McClendon follows a spate of sex-related incidents that have embarrassed the U.S. military and prompted members of Congress to introduce legislation designed to toughen up the Pentagon’s handling of sex crimes.

A study released by the Defense Department two weeks ago estimated that incidents of unwanted sexual contact in the military, from groping to rape, rose 37 percent in 2012, to about 26,000 cases from 19,000 the previous year.

The report was released just days after Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Krusinski, 41, who led the Air Force sexual assault prevention effort, was charged with sexual battery involving a civilian woman in a parking lot not far from the Pentagon.

Several days later a U.S. Army sergeant who worked as a sexual assault prevention coordinator at Fort Hood, Texas, was accused of pandering, abusive sexual contact and assault.

Lawmakers in the Senate and U.S. House of Representatives are moving ahead with steps to toughen the military’s response to sex-related crimes and provide better treatment for victims.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

The Republican-led personnel panel of the House Armed Services Committee proposed additions to the annual defense policy bill that would impose tougher penalties on people who commit sex crimes and would ensure better treatment for victims.

But the panel did not offer changes like those advocated by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, who is pushing a measure that would take responsibility for prosecuting sex crimes out of the victim’s chain of command and put it in the hands of specialized prosecutors.

Nancy Parrish, the head of the Protect Our Defenders advocacy group, applauded some of the proposals in the House measure but said that they did not go far enough.

“The House Armed Services Committee is still is not attacking the fundamental problems,” she said. “Our elected officials are in charge of oversight over the military and they should exert leadership.”

The proposed additions to the National Defense Authorization Act follow a spate of military sexual assault cases that have angered lawmakers and led to calls for legislative action to force the Pentagon to deal more effectively with sex crimes.

A study released by the Defense Department two weeks ago estimated that incidents of unwanted sexual contact in the military, from groping to rape, rose 37 percent in 2012, to about 26,000 cases from 19,000 the previous year.

The report was released just days after Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Krusinski, 41, who led the Air Force sexual assault prevention effort, was charged with sexual battery for allegedly grabbing a civilian woman by the breasts and buttocks in a parking lot not far from the Pentagon.

Several days later a U.S. Army sergeant who worked as a sexual assault prevention coordinator at Fort Hood, Texas, was accused of pandering, abusive sexual contact and assault. Sex-related incidents have continued since then.

Brigadier General Bryan Roberts was suspended on Tuesday as commanding general at the U.S. Army Training Center at Fort Jackson in South Carolina while he is investigated on suspicion of adultery and having a physical altercation. The Army declined to give further details of the case.

TOUGHER PENALTIES

The personnel panel in the House Armed Services Committee is due to vote on a series of new measures to address sexual assault when it convenes on Wednesday. A positive vote would send the proposals to full committee for debate on June 5.

The subcommittee moved ahead with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s recommendation that U.S. military law be amended to eliminate the power that senior generals have to review and modify jury verdicts.

That power, which dates to the U.S. colonial period, is no longer needed because the military justice system now has a formal process of judicial review that allows military personnel to appeal their convictions, officials say.

Hagel proposed the change after a Pentagon review that was prompted by two high-profile cases in which generals responsible for overseeing courts-martial set aside the convictions of officers found guilty of sex crimes.

The panel also proposed eliminating the military code’s five-year statute of limitations on sexual assault. And it proposed making dismissal or dishonorable discharge from the military the minimum sentence for crimes like rape and sexual assault.

Some advocacy groups have complained that it is unjust – and sends the wrong message – for service members to be allowed to remain in the military after being convicted of sex crimes.

The panel also proposed steps to provide better treatment to victims, including assigning those who report sex crimes with victims counsels – attorneys whose job it is to provide specialized assistance to the victims.

Officials say a victims counsel pilot program started in the Air Force this year has been very successful, with victims much more willing to pursue cases against their assailants.

Defense officials say the Pentagon is studying the proposals and discussing them with lawmakers, but is not voicing support or opposition to any at this point.

(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

The increase in education has nevertheless failed to prevent what the nation’s top general called last week “a crisis” after the Pentagon reported a 37 percent jump in the estimated number of sexual assault cases in 2012.

Moreover, the military suffered deep embarrassment when personnel who worked on preventing sexual assaults were themselves accused of sex crimes this month.

On Friday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel gave top brass a week to come up with a plan for discussing the problem with all troops and ensuring proper training and credentials for those who deal with new recruits and sexual assault victims.

Education campaigns teach service members basics like how to make sure the other party is a willing participant in intimate contact, or how to step in as a bystander if an alcohol-fueled situation looks like it could lead to inappropriate conduct.

The Army is in the fifth year of its “I Am Strong” sexual assault prevention campaign, under which all new soldiers are drilled on a set of 10 “sex rules.”

All members of the Air Force are required each year to have one hour of face-to-face sexual assault prevention training from a sexual assault response coordinator.

While all the military services have programs on avoiding sexual assault, critics say training may never be enough to do away with the problem. What is needed, says former Marine Captain Anu Bhagwati, is a shake up in the military judicial system.

“The military cannot train its way out of this problem,” said Bhagwati, who is now executive director of the Service Women’s Action Network, which campaigns for women’s issues in the armed forces.

She urges the military to take prosecution of sexual assault cases away from the chain of command, making it easier for victims to seek justice, an idea echoed in a Senate bill last week.

“I think even today the training is not meaningful, certainly not in a significant way that causes behavior change,” said Bhagwati, who helped implement sexual assault prevention training before she left the military in 2004.

General Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff, said it will take time and diligence to see progress from sexual assault prevention training.

“The experts tell me we have to be careful … because sometimes programs that are successful in this area will take a long time to show results,” he told reporters at the Pentagon.

“This is not going to be a rapid fix,” Welsh said. “It’s got to be a constant attention to detail.”

‘BEHEMOTH ORGANIZATIONS’

While more than half the victims of sexual assault in the military are men, women in the services are still more likely to be accosted sexually.

There are nearly 205,000 women in the active duty military, nearly 15 percent of the total, and women will be integrated in frontline combat roles by 2016.

General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week the military is losing the confidence of women members because of the sexual assault “crisis.”

Changing the culture in an armed forces of 1.4 million people is an enormous challenge.

“These are behemoth organizations. They are enormous. They have attempted to deal with the very difficult problem of sexual assault,” said Anne Munch, a former prosecutor who has worked as a consultant on sexual assault issues with the military for more than a decade.

“You have to attack the problem in a lot of different ways, and there’s no one answer and there’s no silver bullet.”

The Army has a live, interactive program called “Sex Signals” in which soldiers watch actors role play dating scenarios on stage and discuss whether the participants correctly understand how their actions are viewed.

The Army also makes use of a video game called “Team-Bound” in which players witness a potential sexual harassment incident as it unfolds.

Soldiers and officers receive sexual assault prevention training at all levels. New recruits are drilled on a set of 10 rules, from “sexual assault is a crime” and “no always means no” to “stop sexual hazing, bullying and assault” and “be a leader, not a passive bystander.”

To some, the training can come off as half-hearted.

The Protect Our Defenders victims’ advocacy group said an Air Force officer told them that a course he took consisted of being given two brochures to read and being told to sign a paper saying he had come to the class.

The treatment of victims often leaves a lot to be desired, despite efforts to help those who have experienced sexual assault, said the Air Force’s Welsh.

One story that Welsh says hit him “like a ton of bricks” was that of a service member who had been raped in another country. When she went to a base hospital for testing, a technician came out to the waiting room and said in a loud voice, “OK, now who was the sexual assault victim?”

The Air Force started a program in January in which victims are assigned an attorney to guide them through the process and keep them from having to go over their testimony repeatedly. Welsh said early statistics on the victims’ counsel program show the percentage of people willing to proceed with prosecutions is up substantially.

Among those who initially report their cases only on condition it not be pursued as a criminal matter, only about 13 percent shift and agree to prosecute. But in a group of 300 people with special victims’ counsels, 55 percent of those who did not want to pursue the case criminally have shifted and agreed to prosecute, Welsh said.

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Alistair Bell, Mary Milliken and Jackie Frank)

“We’re going to fix this problem,” Hagel told a news conference a day after he and top military leaders met with President Barack Obama to discuss a series of incidents that have reduced confidence in the services’ handling of the crime.

“The president was very constructive. He was very clear. There wasn’t anybody in that room who wasn’t disappointed and embarrassed and didn’t recognize that we’ve in many ways failed,” Hagel said.

The Pentagon chief issued a memo giving the military heads a week to devise a plan for discussing the sexual assault problem with troops at all levels and ensuring that those who deal with new recruits and sexual assault victims have appropriate training and credentials.

The aim is to ensure that “every member of the armed forces clearly understands that they are accountable for fostering a climate where sexist behaviors, sexual harassment and sexual assault are not tolerated,” Hagel said in the memo.

The push for action came a week after the Pentagon issued its annual report on sexual assault in the military, a study that estimated cases of unwanted sexual contact jumped 37 percent in 2012 to 26,000, versus 19,000 the previous year.

Release of the report came in the midst of a spate of incidents that have caused outrage on Capital Hill over the military’s handling of the issue and have led lawmakers to begin working on legislation to address the problem.

The head of the Air Force’s sexual assault prevention and response office was arrested the weekend before the report’s release and charged with groping a woman while drunk in a parking lot not far from the Pentagon.

In the days following the report, two Army personnel were removed from sexual assault prevention jobs after they came under investigation – one for sexual assault and pandering, and the other after being accused of violating a court protective order obtained by his ex-wife.

“I am concerned that this department may be nearing a stage where the frequency of this crime – and the perception that there is a tolerance of it – could very well undermine our ability to effectively carry out the mission,” Hagel said in his memo.

Lawmakers also were outraged over two separate instances in which the senior general in charge of a court martial reviewed a jury’s sexual assault verdict and overturned it. Under the military justice system, the general with ultimate authority over the court martial is required to review the jury’s verdict.

The rulings prompted Hagel to ask Congress to amend military law to eliminate the ability of a commander to throw out a jury verdict. Officials say that provision of the law, which dates to the U.S. revolutionary period, has become outmoded because the system now has a judicial appeals process.

Some lawmakers contend that the decision whether to prosecute a sexual assault case also should be removed from the victim’s immediate chain of command and placed in the hands of specially trained military prosecutors.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand proposed legislation on Thursday to take that step.

“If … a trained military prosecutor can make that judgment about whether a case can go to trial, I think that’s going to begin to solve the problem (where) … you have 26,000 assaults a year and only 3,000 reported,” she told MSNBC television on Friday.

Air Force Chief of Staff Mark Welsh, who came under fire for citing a “hook-up culture” for part of the problem during congressional testimony, told reporters he was sorry for how his remarks were perceived and hoped to receive input from lawmakers and advocacy groups on how best to address sexual assault.

“There are victims who took what I said as blaming them,” he said. “Boy, I am sorry about that because there is nothing that is further from the truth as far as I personally feel.”

Welsh said Obama had been clear in his meeting with the chiefs about the need to address the problem. But Welsh said that would require focus and a long-term effort.

“This is not going to be a rapid fix,” he said. “It’s got to be a constant attention to detail. The task just doesn’t end, which is OK. This is about people. It’s the most important thing we do.”

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Philip Barbara)

On Tuesday, the military disclosed that another one of its advocates for victims of sexual assault was himself being accused of sex crimes, including allegations linking him to prostitution.

Hagel, in his initial response, ordered the retraining and recertification of U.S. military personnel whose job it is to work to prevent sexual assault and assist the victims. But the Pentagon made clear Wednesday that Hagel is open to further actions.

But the latest scandal may have been the last straw for Congress. Lawmakers have issued a string of statements vowing legislative action, such as setting job requirements for people who work with sexual assault victims.

Other lawmakers and advocacy groups are calling for changes to military law that would allow prosecution of sex crimes to be handled by a group of experts outside the victim’s direct chain of command.

“The military has made it clear that it cannot handle this problem alone and it is time for decisive action by Congress,” said Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

He and other lawmakers on the Senate and House panels that oversee the Pentagon have vowed to use this year’s annual defense policy bill to address the sexual assault problem.

Democratic Senators Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota introduced a bill on Wednesday to force Hagel to take action to strengthen sexual assault prevention programs, including improving the training and qualifications of those who work in those jobs.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, is planning to introduce legislation on Thursday that would remove responsibility for prosecution of sex crimes out of the military’s chain of command.

“Saying the military has a cultural problem in regard to sexual assault and sexual misconduct is a glaring understatement,” said Representative Niki Tsongas, a Democrat from Massachusetts. “At worst, this is a deep-rooted and widespread acceptance of unprofessional, inappropriate and criminal behavior.”

The pressure for action comes after department’s annual report on sexual assault in the military released last week found that unwanted sexual contact complaints involving military personnel jumped 37 percent, to 26,000 in 2012 from 19,000 the previous year.

The report came a day after the officer in charge of the Air Force sexual assault prevention office was charged with groping a woman while drunk in a parking lot not far from the Pentagon. And on Tuesday, the Army revealed a sergeant in the sexual assault prevention office at Fort Hood was under investigation.

The pressure for action has put the Pentagon on the defensive. Asked whether retraining and recertifying people who assist sexual assault victims was a sufficient response, Hagel’s spokesman George Little said training was “foundational” and was accompanied by other actions.

“We’re not focused solely on PowerPoint slides,” Little told reporters. “We’re focused on taking real steps that we believe, in combination, can at least help advance the ball on progress.”

He said the retraining effort was not necessarily limited to recruiting officers and those who help sexual assault victims, but could be expanded to other job classifications as well.

And while Hagel last week publicly opposed removing responsibility for sex crimes from the military chain of command, Pentagon officials since then have emphasized his willingness to be flexible and work with members of Congress.

“He is open to all options. I wouldn’t want to prejudge where he might land ultimately, but he wants to work closely with the United States Congress to see what ideas they have to try to address this problem,” Little said.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and David Alexander; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

News of the investigation sparked renewed anger and frustration over military’s inability to deal quickly with its sexual assault problem. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel expressed disappointment over the “breakdown in discipline” implied by the allegations, and lawmakers voiced outrage.

“This is sickening,” said Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat. “Twice now, in a matter of as many weeks, we’ve seen the very people charged with protecting victims of sexual assault being charged as perpetrators.”

Representative Buck McKeon, a Republican who heads the House Armed Services Committee, said he was “outraged and disgusted” by the reports and that the chain of command bore some responsibility regardless of whether it was “oblivious to or tolerant of criminal behavior.”

The Army said a sergeant first class at Fort Hood, whose name was not released, was under investigation for allegations of pandering, abusive sexual contact, assault and maltreatment of subordinates.

The sergeant, a member of the Army’s III Corps, had been assigned as a sexual assault response and prevention program coordinator with a battalion in the Corps, the Pentagon said. The Army suspended the sergeant from all duties after the allegations surfaced, it said.

No charges have been filed against the soldier at this time. The investigation of the allegations is being conducted by special agents from the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command, the Pentagon said.

Pentagon spokesman George Little said Hagel was notified of the allegations on Tuesday morning by Army Secretary John McHugh. Hagel urged McHugh to ensure the allegations are investigated quickly and dealt with appropriately, he said.

“I cannot convey strongly enough his frustration, anger, and disappointment over these troubling allegations and the breakdown in discipline and standards they imply,” Little said in a statement.

Little said the Army and the other military services were in the process of implementing Hagel’s directive to re-train, re-credential and re-screen all sexual assault prevention and response personnel and military recruiters.

The investigation of the sergeant came just a week after the head of the Air Force’s anti-sexual assault unit was arrested on charges of sexual battery after allegedly groping a woman in a parking lot in a restaurant district not far from the Pentagon.

Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Krusinski, 41, was suspended from his duties in the sexual assault response office, and his case is being handled by civilian authorities in Arlington, Virginia, who declined an offer from the military to prosecute the case.

Krusinski’s arrest came a day before the Pentagon released its annual report on sexual assault in the military, a study that estimated the number of sex crimes involving military personnel soared by 37 percent to 26,000 in 2012, from 19,000 in 2011.

The crimes ranged from rape to abusive sexual contact.

The military’s problem with sexual assault has prompted some lawmakers to call for the crime to be removed from the military chain of command so it can be handled by experts. But senior military officers contend the crimes should be handled through the chain of command to ensure commanders are held accountable for discipline.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

The bat-winged X-47B stealth drone roared off the USS George H.W. Bush near the coast of Virginia and flew a series of pre-programmed maneuvers around the ship before veering away toward a Naval air station in Maryland where it was scheduled to land.

“This is really a red-letter day. May 14 we all saw history happen” said Rear Admiral Ted Branch, the Atlantic naval air commander. “It’s a marker … between naval aviation as we’ve known it and the future of naval aviation with the launch of the X-47B.”

Because of its stealth potential and a range nearly twice that of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the X-47B and its successors are seen as a potential answer to the threat posed by medium-range anti-ship missiles developed by China and Iran, defense analysts said.

The missiles and other so-called anti-access, area-denial weapons would force U.S. aircraft carriers to operate far enough from shore that piloted aircraft would have to undergo refueling to carry out their missions, leaving them vulnerable to attack.

But with a range of 2,000 nautical miles, an unmanned jet like the X-47B could give the Navy both a long-range strike and reconnaissance capability.

“That makes it strategically very important,” said Anthony Cordesman, a senior defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He described the drone as “essentially a really long-range stealth system.”

The X-47B – one of only two demonstrator models made by Northrop Grumman – carries the equivalent of two precision-guided bombs. It was catapulted from the aircraft carrier on Tuesday using the same sling-shot system that sends manned aircraft aloft.

LANDING ON BOARD

It is scheduled to undergo two weeks of testing aboard the carrier leading up to a landing on the ship, in which a plane’s tailhook grabs a wire that will slow it and keep it from plunging overboard.

While the carrier takeoff represented a significant milestone, defense analysts are focused on the next step, when the Navy attempts to use what has been learned with the X-47B to develop an unmanned aircraft for actual operations.

“The X-47B is a great story,” said Mark Gunzinger, a defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments think-tank. “It’s a milestone and a step forward for unmanned, carrier-based aviation. But I think the real story is what’s next. How do we operationalize this capability?”

Future variants of the drone could probably be designed for full-spectrum broadband stealth, which means it would be hard for radar to locate it, analysts said. That level of stealth would be one of the drone’s major defenses.

U.S. drones currently in use in places like Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan – like the Predator and Reaper – are not up against any air defenses and are not stealthy aircraft.

Because of its long range and the Navy’s need to have it take off and land, day and night, from an aircraft carrier, the X-47B has been designed to operate with far greater autonomy than the remotely piloted aircraft currently in use.

That has raised concerns among some organizations worried about the heavy U.S. reliance on drones in warfare and the rising use of autonomous robots by the American military.

Human Rights Watch, in a report launching its recent campaign against “killer robots,” cited the X-47B as one of several weapons that represent a transition toward development of fully autonomous arms that require little human intervention.

A follow-on program – known as the Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike System, or UCLASS – is expected to build on what was learned with the X-47B to produce operational aircraft.

“As anti-access environments proliferate, the Navy’s Carrier Air Wings will require a mix of aircraft, both manned and unmanned, with the extended range, persistence, stealth, and payload to ensure U.S. power projection around the globe,” said Representative Randy Forbes, a Virginia Republican and member of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.

(Editing By Alistair Bell and Paul Simao)

The X-47B, which can carry the equivalent of two
precision-guided bombs and fly 2,000 nautical miles in one trip,
is due to take off from the USS George H. W. Bush in the
Atlantic using the same sling-shot system that sends manned
aircraft aloft from the short runways aboard aircraft carriers.

Because of its stealth potential and a range nearly twice
that of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the X-47B and its
successors are seen as one potential answer to the threat posed
by medium-range anti-ship missiles developed by potential rivals
like China and Iran, defense analysts say.

The missiles and other so-called anti-access, area denial
weapons would force U.S. aircraft carriers to operate far enough
from shore that F-35 and F/A-18 aircraft would have to undergo
refueling to carry out their missions, leaving them vulnerable
to attack.

But an unmanned jet like the X-47B could give the Navy both
a long-range strike and reconnaissance capability.

“That makes it strategically very important,” said Anthony
Cordesman, a senior defense analyst at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies. He described the drone as
“essentially a really long-range stealth system.”

Future variants of the drone could probably be designed for
full-spectrum broadband stealth, which means it would be hard
for radar to locate it, analysts said. That level of stealth
would be one of the drone’s major defenses.

U.S. drones currently in use in places like Afghanistan and
the tribal areas of Pakistan – like the Predator and Reaper -
are not up against any air defenses and are not stealthy
aircraft.

Because of its long range and the Navy’s need to have it
take off and land, day and night, from an aircraft carrier, the
X-47B has been designed to operate with far greater autonomy
than the remotely piloted aircraft currently in use.

That has raised concerns among some organizations worried
about the heavy U.S. reliance on drones in warfare and the
rising use of autonomous robots by the American military.

Human Rights Watch, in a report launching its recent
campaign against “killer robots,” cited the X-47B as one of
several weapons that represent a transition toward development
of fully autonomous arms that require little human intervention.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The Navy tested the X-47B aboard the carrier USS Harry S.
Truman late last year, learning how to move it around the decks
and thinking about how to integrate it into flight operations.
The plane practiced catapult takeoffs and arrested landings at
Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland earlier this month.

Analysts will be to see watching whether the Navy just
conducts takeoffs and landings during the testing that begins on
Tuesday, or if it attempts to integrate the X-47B’s flight into
operations with other planes.

“One of the biggest challenges … of having an unmanned
system (aboard a carrier) is just keeping that … ops tempo
going,” said Brien Alkire, a senior researcher at RAND’s Project
Air Force. “I’ll be curious to see if do they just do a takeoff
and landing or do they really … integrate it.”

The X-47B is a demonstration aircraft built by Northrop
Grumman under a Navy contract to test the feasibility of
unmanned carrier takeoffs and landings and autonomous aerial
refueling. Only two planes were built.

A follow-on program – known as the Unmanned Carrier Launched
Airborne Surveillance and Strike System, or UCLASS – is expected
to build on what was learned with the X-47B to produce
operational aircraft.

An initial request for design proposals is expected to be
issued by the Navy sometime this month. Other aircraft makers,
from Lockheed Martin and Boeing to General Atomics – are
expected to compete to participate.

“The X-47B is a great story,” said Mark Gunzinger, a defense
analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments
think-tank. “It’s a milestone and a step forward for unmanned,
carrier based aviation. But I think the real story is what’s
next. How do we operationalize this capability?”

Gunzinger said with the Navy had a “real opportunity” with
the UCLASS to either reproduce the kind of drone already in use
by the Air Force, or to develop a new type of aircraft “that can
be very stealthy and can accept new missions because it has
sufficient payload and a growth potential.”

“I’m just fed up with this sexual assault stuff,” Senator Barbara Mikulski told a hearing with top Air Force leaders a day after the Pentagon released its 2012 annual report on sexual assault in the military, which showed a 37 percent jump in estimated sex crimes to 26,000.

The release came at an embarrassing time for the Air Force, which had just removed the head of its sexual assault prevention office after he was charged with groping a woman while drunk in a parking lot near the Pentagon.

“I’ve been working with you for 25 years and it didn’t seem to do one damn bit of good,” Mikulski told the Air Force civilian and military leaders, referring to a long history of Air Force sex assault scandals. “I’m pretty frustrated. I want change. I want action.”

“What are we going to do about the culture?” asked Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat.

General Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff, told Mikulski, “No one is more frustrated than I am” over the military’s continuing problem with sexual assault.

“I need to do more. The Air Force needs to do more. And every single victim is just a gut-wrenching reminder of that,” he said.

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley called sexual assault “a cancer” for the military but acknowledged that while the services had done a lot to try to address the problem, “We haven’t found the game-changers yet.”

As the Senate debated culture change in the Air Force, Representative Jackie Speier exposed a Facebook page frequented by Marines that she said raised concerns about the corps.

“I am confident that if you reviewed the contents of this web page you would also be horrified by the culture of misogyny and sexual harassment depicted on the website,” Speier said in a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Marine Corps Commandant General James Amos.

“The ‘humor’ expressed on this page and similar pages … contribute to a culture that permits and seems to encourage sexual assault and abuse,” she said.

The Facebook page, which appeared to have been taken down sometime Wednesday, showed photos of women “in various forms of nudity,” said Speier, who distributed copies of some photos from the site.

Some of the photos and captions suggested female Marines only advanced in their careers by performing sexual favors. Others showed women who had been abused, with captions suggesting they belonged in the kitchen.

The Marine Corps issued a statement warning that Marines were responsible for what they publish on social networking sites and could be punished for violations of military law.

“There is no tolerance for discriminatory comments. It goes against good order and discipline,” the statement said. “Marines must use their best judgment at all times and avoid inappropriate behavior that could bring discredit upon themselves, their unit and the Marine Corps.”

(Reporting By David Alexander; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

The annual Pentagon report, which estimated there were 26,000 sex crimes ranging rape to abusive sexual contact in 2012, came a day after the Air Force removed the officer in charge of its anti-sexual assault office for allegedly groping a civilian in a suburban parking lot near the Pentagon.

Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Krusinski, 41, was removed from his job as head of the Air Force Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office after he was charged with sexual battery for allegedly grabbing a civilian woman by the breasts and buttocks.

The incident provoked an outcry from senior Pentagon officials, lawmakers, and President Barack Obama, who told reporters he had “no tolerance for this.”

“We find out somebody’s engaging in this stuff, they’ve got to be held accountable. Prosecuted. Stripped out of their positions. Court martialed. Fired. Dishonorably discharged. Period. It’s not acceptable,” Obama told reporters.

He said he had spoken to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and told him “we’re going to have to not just step up our game – we have to exponentially step up our game to go at this thing hard.”

Releasing the Pentagon’s annual report on sexual assault in the military, Hagel said the Defense Department was “outraged and disgusted over these very troubling allegations.” He warned that the problem of sexual assault had reached a point that it could jeopardize the military’s ability to attract and retain personnel.

“Sexual assault is a despicable crime and one of the most serious challenges facing this department,” he said. “It’s a threat to the safety and the welfare of our people and the health, reputation and trust of this institution.

The Pentagon study found there were 3,374 reported cases of sexual assault in 2012, up nearly 200 from the 3,192 reported in 2011. Using survey data, the department estimated there were 26,000 cases of unwanted sexual contact in 2012, compared to 19,000 in 2011.

More men than women reported unwanted sexual contact – 13,900 versus 12,100 – but a higher proportion of female personnel were affected – 6.1 percent, versus 1.2. percent – the study found.

SERIES OF EMBARRASSING SCANDALS

The military has faced a series of embarrassing sexual assault scandals in the past year. An investigation at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, that began in 2011 has so far turned up 59 cases of sexual assault of military recruits by drill instructors.

The military has also been involved in controversial cases where the officer in charge of a court martial proceeding has thrown out the sexual assault convictions of service members. Those incidents have raised questions about whether the military can effectively deal with its sexual assault problem.

Despite the difficulties, Hagel told reporters he did not favor removing the prosecution of sex crimes from the authority of the military chain of command.

“Some things do need to be changed,” Hagel said. “Taking it away – the … ultimate responsibility – away from the military, I think that would just weaken the system.”

Even so, Krusinski may not face a military court over his sexual battery charge because the Arlington County prosecutor Theo Stamos decided to retain jurisdiction over the case rather than relinquish it to the military. She said it did not make sense to hand the case over to the military since it took place in a civilian setting.

Hagel announced a series of steps to improve the military’s efforts to prevent and respond to sexual assaults, but some lawmakers expressed skepticism and vowed to move ahead with efforts to remove responsibility for prosecuting the crimes from the chain of command.

“Despite pledges of zero tolerance from the military … this report provides troubling evidence that we are going in the wrong direction,” said Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand from New York, who said she would introduce legislation next week.

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh faced sharp questions over the sexual assault issue at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday.

They said they were appalled by Krusinski’s weekend arrest, but they resisted lawmakers’ calls to remove prosecutions of sexual assault and rape from the military chain of command.

Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill from Missouri told the Air Force leaders that perceptions about the military’s handling of sexual assault cases went to the heart of the issue.

“That is the crux of the problem here, because if a victim does not believe that the system is capable of believing her, there’s no point to risking your entire career,” she said.

How difficult, she asked, would it be for a victim “to have to salute the man who had been convicted by his peers of assaulting her.”

(Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton and Tom Ferraro; Editing by David Brunnstrom)