§ Article 110 : Improper Hazarding of Vessel or Aircraft

Article 110 of the UCMJ (10 U.S.C. § 910) punishes willfully and wrongfully hazarding, or suffering to be hazarded, a vessel or aircraft of the armed forces, and separately punishes doing so negligently.

Who It Applies To

Any person subject to the UCMJ who willfully and wrongfully hazards, or suffers to be hazarded, a vessel or aircraft of the armed forces; or who does so negligently.

What It Covers

1. A vessel or aircraft of the armed forces was hazarded in a certain manner.
2. The accused, by certain acts or omissions, willfully and wrongfully — or negligently — caused or suffered the vessel or aircraft to be hazarded.

Key rules

• To hazard is to put in danger of loss or injury. Actual damage to or loss of a vessel or aircraft — by collision, stranding, running on a shoal or rock, or any other cause — is conclusive evidence that it was hazarded, but not of any particular person’s culpability.
• Willfully means intentionally; wrongfully means contrary to law, regulation, lawful order, or custom.
• Negligence is the failure to exercise the care, prudence, or attention to duty that the interests of the Government require of a prudent and reasonable person in the circumstances. A person is not excused from duties imposed by the general responsibilities of their grade or rank, or by the customs of the service, merely because those duties are not written in a regulation or order. A mere error in judgment that a reasonably able person might have made is not an offense.
• To suffer is to allow or permit. A person not in direct control who knows a danger is imminent and takes no steps to prevent it — for example, a navigator who fails to report a radar contact on a collision course — willfully suffers the vessel or aircraft to be hazarded.
• Aircraft includes remotely piloted aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Maximum Punishment

Maximum authorized punishment.

• Willfully and wrongfully: death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.
• Negligently: dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 2 years.

Sentencing parameters. Willful and wrongful hazarding is a sentencing-criteria offense (no numbered category); sentencing parameters and criteria do not apply to the decision whether to impose death. Negligent hazarding is Category 2 (1–36 months), with a recommended maximum of 24 months.

The newer sentencing rules apply, subject to the capital-case rules, when the accused is convicted only of offenses committed after 27 December 2023. See How UCMJ Sentencing Rules Apply. The maximum authorized punishment and the applicable sentencing framework do not predict the sentence in a particular case.

Related and Distinguished

Article 110 addresses endangering the vessel or aircraft itself. Loss of or damage to military property generally is addressed by Article 108, and drunken or reckless operation of a vehicle, aircraft, or vessel by Article 113.

What the Provision Does

Article 110 is limited to vessels and aircraft of the armed forces. It separates willful and wrongful hazarding, which authorizes death, from negligent hazarding, which carries a maximum of 2 years’ confinement.

History

Article 110 appeared in the original 1950 UCMJ, codified at 10 U.S.C. § 910 in 1956, and applied only to vessels. The Military Justice Act of 2016 (Pub. L. 114-328, § 5422) rewrote it to cover aircraft as well, effective January 1, 2019.

Sources

• 10 U.S.C. § 910 (Article 110, UCMJ)
• Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, 2024 edition, Part IV, ¶ 47
• Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (2024 ed.), Appendix 12B and Appendix 12C
• Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (2024 ed.), Appendix 12D