Pentagon quietly shut legally required program to prevent civilian deaths by military, watchdog finds

The Pentagon has dismantled a legally mandated program designed to prevent civilian deaths in military operations, according to a report by the Department of Defense’s inspector general. The Civilian Protection Center of Excellence (CP CoE) and related initiatives—established in January 2022 under Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin—lack personnel, funding, and operational tools to fulfill federal requirements. Funding for a data management platform has ended, committee meetings have halted, and dedicated staff have been reassigned, leaving only seven employees locked out of key operations. The program’s decline began under Pete Hegseth, who took over as Pentagon chief in 2025. Hegseth, who rebranded the Department of Defense as the Department of War last September, has faced criticism over civilian casualties, including a U.S. strike in Iran’s Minab region in March 2026 that killed at least 175 people, mostly children at an all-girls school. Despite claims that the U.S. takes unprecedented precautions to avoid civilian harm, the inspector general’s report contradicts this, citing forced resignations and stifled investigations since Hegseth’s appointment. Wes J Bryant, a former Air Force combat veteran and CP CoE chief, described the program’s collapse as deliberate, with employees reduced to a ‘closet office’ in Virginia. Bryant was forced out last spring amid broader rollbacks to safeguards on lethal force authorizations, as reported by ProPublica. The inspector general’s findings highlight a February 2026 inflection point, when senior officials, including acting Under Secretary of War Elbridge Colby, oversaw the program’s erosion. Airwars, a civilian harm monitor, previously estimated that U.S. drone and airstrikes killed at least 22,000 civilians—potentially up to 48,000—since 9/11. The Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment on the report, which underscores systemic failures in accountability for civilian harm prevention. The inspector general warned that without corrective action, the military may violate federal laws requiring compliance with civilian casualty policies.