833 Article 92 Courts-Martial in Three Services, 2021–2025
Article 92 (orders violation) was charged in 833 courts-martial across the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps from 2021–2025. Of 284 contested cases that reached a verdict, 52 ended in a full acquittal (18%), compared with 37% for all courts-martial in those years.
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Trends › By Offense › Article 92 › Across the services
Short answer: Article 92 (orders violation) was charged in 833 courts-martial across the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps from 2021–2025. Of 284 contested cases that reached a verdict, 52 ended in a full acquittal (18%), compared with 37% for all courts-martial in those years. A punitive discharge followed 51% of enlisted convictions, compared with 65% overall.
The Navy-Marine Corps Charged Article 92 Most Often
Article 92 covers failure to obey an order or regulation. It appeared in 19% of Navy-Marine Corps courts-martial in these years, with 352 cases. In both the Army and the Air Force, it appeared in 13% of courts-martial, with 319 and 162 cases.
The Navy-Marine Corps count was 88 in 2021, 56 in 2023, and 83 in 2025. The Army count went from 87 in 2021 and 89 in 2022 to 34 in 2025.
| Service | Cases charging Article 92 | Share of that service's cases |
|---|---|---|
| Army | 319 | 13% |
| Air Force | 162 | 13% |
| Navy-Marine Corps | 352 | 19% |
Yearly Totals
The total was 211 in 2021, 188 in 2022, 133 in 2023, 149 in 2024, and 152 in 2025. In 2025, the Navy-Marine Corps had 83 cases, compared with 34 in the Army and 35 in the Air Force. The Air Force count stayed between 27 and 36 each year, with 36 in both 2021 and 2022.
| Year | Army | Air Force | Navy-Marine Corps |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 87 | 36 | 88 |
| 2022 | 89 | 36 | 63 |
| 2023 | 50 | 27 | 56 |
| 2024 | 59 | 28 | 62 |
| 2025 | 34 | 35 | 83 |
Full Acquittals in Contested Cases
In the Army, 25% of 102 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal. In the Navy-Marine Corps, 16% of 136 did. Both rates are lower than the 37% for all courts-martial in those years.
No Air Force acquittal rate is shown. Air Force records rarely list the charges when every charge ends in acquittal, so a rate for a single offense cannot be measured from them. Counting every contested case with a verdict in the records, 52 of 284 ended in a full acquittal (18%).
Pleas by Service
A contested case is one where the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. The Navy-Marine Corps contested share was 40% of 343 cases with a plea recorded. The Army share was 32% of 318, and the Air Force share was 30% of 152.
The rest were guilty pleas. The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty or contested the charges.
| Service | Contested share | Cases with a plea recorded | Full acquittal (contested, verdict reached) | Contested cases with a verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Army | 32% | 318 | 25% | 102 |
| Air Force | 30% | 152 | — | — |
| Navy-Marine Corps | 40% | 343 | 16% | 136 |
Sentences After a Conviction
The Army and the Navy-Marine Corps each had a median confinement of 4 months, from 293 and 327 convictions. The Air Force median was 3 months, from 157 convictions.
Confinement was part of 80% of Air Force sentences, 79% of Army sentences, and 68% of Navy-Marine Corps sentences. Sentences longer than 1 year made up 18% of Army convictions, 11% of Air Force convictions, and 10% of Navy-Marine Corps convictions.
These figures are adjudged sentences, as announced at trial and before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Article 92 can be one of several charges in a case, and the sentence covers all of them.
| Service | Convictions | Included confinement | Median confinement | More than 1 year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Army | 293 | 79% | 4 months | 18% |
| Air Force | 157 | 80% | 3 months | 11% |
| Navy-Marine Corps | 327 | 68% | 4 months | 10% |
Punitive Discharges and Court Level
Across the three services, 51% of convicted enlisted members received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. The Army rate was 55% of 273, the Navy-Marine Corps rate was 50% of 300, and the Air Force rate was 45% of 148.
The Army tried 67% of its Article 92 cases at a general court-martial, compared with 35% in the Air Force and 27% in the Navy-Marine Corps. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence.
| Service | Convicted enlisted members | Punitive discharge | General court-martial share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Army | 273 | 55% | 67% |
| Air Force | 148 | 45% | 35% |
| Navy-Marine Corps | 300 | 50% | 27% |
NCOs Were the Largest Group in the Army
Among the accused with rank recorded, 52% of Army accused were NCOs (E-5 to E-9) and 41% were junior enlisted (E-1 to E-4). In the Air Force, 59% were junior enlisted and 35% were NCOs. In the Navy-Marine Corps, 58% were junior enlisted and 41% were NCOs.
Officers were 7% of Army accused, 6% of Air Force accused, and 2% of Navy-Marine Corps accused. The Navy-Marine Corps shares use 328 cases with rank listed.
| Service | Cases with rank | Junior enlisted (E-1 to E-4) | NCOs (E-5 to E-9) | Officers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Army | 319 | 41% | 52% | 7% |
| Air Force | 162 | 59% | 35% | 6% |
| Navy-Marine Corps | 328 | 58% | 41% | 2% |
Rule Changes Since December 2023
Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. When every guilty finding in a case is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters. These rules turn on the offense date, which the records do not give. Cases tried from 2024 on therefore include some under the old rules and some under the new rules, and the records cannot show whether the law affected any of the figures here.
What the Records Cannot Tell
The records do not identify which order or regulation was violated, what the evidence was, or what any plea agreement said. Orders violations handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation are not in these court-martial records, and a sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 92 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Courts-martial in all three service groups with trial dates in 2021–2025 that charged Article 92 (833 cases). Coast Guard cases are not included.
Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in Military Trial Results, data updated October 24, 2026. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: how this data was built. Errors: content@bodiesburied.com.
Related Analysis
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- Article 92 explained on the law firm's website
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.