Seven years after major gaps found, Marines ramp up armory security

In the wake of a 2018 Government Accountability Office report that found military ammunition, including missiles and rockets, was not being properly safeguarded, every military service and the Pentagon took action to increase inspections and security protocols.

Every service, that is, except the Marine Corps.

Nearly seven years to the day after the report’s publication, the Corps issued a Marine Corps administrative message mandating physical security survey protocols with stern accountability requirements and designated corrective actions for deficiencies.

What’s not clear, though, is why it took so long for the service to fall in on the GAO’s guidance. On GAO’s webpage for the report, the recommendation for the Marine Corps is still listed as “open” even as those for the Air Force, Army, Department of the Navy and Department of Defense are closed.

“As of August 2022, when we reached out through [the Department of Defense] about the status of this recommendation, no update was provided. We reached out to DoD in June 2023 and again in August 2023 to request an update on the status of this recommendation, but as of November 2023 we have not heard back from DOD,” GAO investigators wrote in a status update to the report’s recommendations.

“We will keep this recommendation open and continue to monitor whether the Marine Corps takes relevant implementation actions. As of March 2025, DOD has not provided information showing that the Marine Corps has taken action to meet the intent of this recommendation.”

A request for comment from the Marine Corps on the timing of its response to the GAO report did not receive an immediate answer.

According to GAO, the Army was the first to update its security regimen, adding a new information system to track inspections timelines in 2019. The Navy added new tracking questions to its explosives safety checklist in 2020, and the Air Force updated its own internal tracking tools in the same timeframe. In 2021, the Pentagon issued a memo with guidance for all the services on how to correct problems found in security inspections.

In GAO’s 2018 report, the Marine Corps fared reasonably well. In site surveys, GAO found between one and seven security deficiencies for Marine Corps armory locations, compared with one to 24 for the Army and one to 16 for the Navy. Marine security guidance also exceeded the DOD standard of six-foot-high fences, and it was the only service to require an eight-hour power backup on intrusion detection services, as prescribed by the Pentagon.

But the report did find that nearly half of Marine Corps security inspections GAO reviewed were conducted late, and two out of six Corps locations surveyed did not follow guidance for inspections and documentation.

“Marine Corps guidance does not clearly state what items must be included in the physical security inspection report,” GAO wrote at the time, adding that an official told them the Corps would clarify these requirements in an update to the Corps’ Physical Security Program manual by June 2019. That manual does not appear to have been updated then, or any time since 2009.

At all six Marine Corps locations reviewed, at least one physical security deficiency was found.

“For these 6 Marine Corps locations, we found no documentation about whether and how the deficiencies were resolved,” GAO wrote. “Instead, we found notes in the inspection documentation about next steps — such as submitting a repair work order — that were taken regarding some but not all of the identified deficiencies.”

The Marine administrative message, published Oct. 30, directs that physical security surveys are to be conducted by trained and certified specialists and reiterated that Physical Security departments must complete and maintain security surveys and other records. It dictates that commanders must provide a corrective action report and plan within 90 days for any physical security deficiencies and that a general officer-level headquarters must be notified if surveys are performed late. Along with annual surveys in accordance with requirements, it directs the Marine Corps to provide a response to the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security certifying compliance.

A 2021 Associated Press report found that weapons had gone missing from all the military services between 2010-2019, with the Marine Corps reporting 204 lost or stolen weapons, including firearms and grenade launchers. Of those, 14 were later recovered, AP reported.