§2X7.2 Submersible and Semi-Submersible Vessels: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025
All 19 people sentenced under guideline §2X7.2 received a prison term, and all 19 pleaded guilty. The median prison term was 46 months (3.8 years), and every person was ordered to serve supervised release after prison, with a median of 36 months.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2X7.2
In brief: All 19 people sentenced under guideline §2X7.2 received a prison term, and all 19 pleaded guilty. The median prison term was 46 months (3.8 years), and every person was ordered to serve supervised release after prison, with a median of 36 months.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 19 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Acquittals and dismissals come from a second source, the Federal Judicial Center's records of 753,808 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
Every Case Ended in a Guilty Plea and Prison
The U.S. Sentencing Commission data lists 19 people whose primary guideline was §2X7.2 in the years covered. All 19 (100%) received a prison term. None received probation only. All 19 (100%) pleaded guilty, and none was convicted after a trial.
Because every person pleaded guilty, the records cannot compare plea sentences with trial sentences for this guideline.
What the Guideline Covers
The Sentencing Guidelines Manual gives this section the title "Submersible and Semi-Submersible Vessels." The title is all the sheet says about the conduct, so this post does not describe the underlying offenses further.
The Commission places all 19 cases in the offense type Other.
The Length of Prison Terms
The median prison term was 46 months. A quarter of the people received 63 months or more, and a quarter received 37 months or less. No mandatory minimum prison term applied to any of the 19.
The yearly table lists only 3 fiscal years: 2016, 2023, and 2024. In 2016, 4 people had a median of 43.5 months. In 2023, 4 people had a median of 46 months. In 2024, 11 people had a median of 38 months.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 4 | 43.5 months | 4 of 4 |
| 2023 | 4 | 46 months | 4 of 4 |
| 2024 | 11 | 38 months | 100% |
How the Sentences Compared With the Guideline Range
The guideline range is the span of sentences the guidelines call for in a case. For 15 people (79%), the sentence was within the range. For 1 person (5%), it was below the range at the government's request. For 3 people (16%), it was below the range without a government request. No sentence was above the range.
Among the guilty pleas, 79% had a written plea agreement and 21% were straight pleas with no agreement.
Supervised Release, Fines, and Criminal History
All 19 people (100%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, with a median term of 36 months. No fine was ordered, and no restitution was ordered.
In criminal history, 89% were in the lowest category I and 0% were in the highest (VI).
Earlier and Later Years
Fiscal years 2016 to 2019 had 4 people with a median prison term of 43.5 months. Fiscal years 2020 to 2025 had 15 people with a median of 46 months. The medians are close, and the first group is small.
The records cannot show whether these cases were charged together or separately, or what each person did.
How to Read a Median and a Quarter Value
A median is the middle value of the prison terms. The 63-month and 37-month figures mark the points that a quarter of the people were above or below. Reading these figures together shows how wide the spread was without naming any single case.
Here the median of 46 months falls between 37 and 63 months, so the terms were not tightly clustered.
Limits of These Numbers
The data counts only people who were convicted and sentenced, so acquittals and dismissals are missing. Prison terms are the terms imposed, not time served.
The approved crosswalk lists no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline. This post therefore reports the federal numbers alone.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2X7.2 (19), from the U.S. Sentencing Commission's individual data files. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
No parole in federal prison; credit for good conduct. Federal prison has no parole for crimes committed on or after November 1, 1987. A federal prisoner can earn up to 54 days of good conduct credit for each year of the sentence the judge imposed, which is about 15%. Some federal prisoners can also earn First Step Act time credits, but many offenses make a person ineligible. The numbers in this post are the sentences judges imposed, not the time people actually served.
Federal supervised release. Most federal prison sentences are followed by a term of supervised release that the judge sets as part of the sentence. A person who violates it can be sent back to prison. A court-martial cannot sentence anyone to supervision after release. Military parole and mandatory supervised release are decided later by a board, not by the judge at trial.
Who decides the sentence, and under what rules. Federal judges sentence every federal case. They must calculate the Sentencing Guidelines range, which is advisory, and must impose any mandatory minimum the statute requires unless an exception applies. In courts-martial, the accused could choose sentencing by members until the rules changed. For cases in which every guilty finding is for an offense committed after December 27, 2023, a military judge sentences alone, within sentencing parameters. Courts-martial tried in 2024 and later include both old-rule and new-rule cases, and the data cannot tell them apart.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
How life sentences and "time served" are counted. In the federal numbers, a life sentence is counted as 470 months, and any other sentence longer than 470 months is counted as just under 470 months. A sentence of "time served" is counted as one day (0.03 months). Averages are affected by these rules; medians much less.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- §2X4.1 Misprision of Felony: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (same guideline chapter part)
- §2X5.2 Class A Misdemeanors (Not Covered by Another Specific Offense Guideline): Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (same guideline chapter part)
- §2X3.1 Accessory After the Fact: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (same guideline chapter part)
- §2X1.1 Attempt, Solicitation, or Conspiracy (Not Covered by a Specific Offense Guideline): Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (same guideline chapter part)
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
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.