While the United States has finally wound down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the American military remains engaged in operations all over the world. An unfortunate byproduct of those operations are aviation accidents in which military servicemembers are injured or killed.

Tort claims against the U.S. government for the death or injury of members of the military in aviation accidents are precluded through multiple legal defenses and exceptions to the Federal Tort Claims Act. Tort claims by service members or their surviving families against government aviation contractors remain viable under some circumstances. Government contractors, however, have unique defenses available to them that any practitioner bringing a claim against a government contractor must overcome.