Warren Secures Commitments From Military Nominees to Prevent Civilian Harm, Study the Long-Term Effects of Blast Overpressure
Lieutenant General Anderson agrees that following the laws of war to protect civilians is “critical to our success and competition.”
Vice Admiral Bradley voices support to study the long-term effects of blast overpressure exposure: “People are more important than hardware, and the critical part of those people is the intellectual capacity.”
Washington, D.C. – At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Personnel Subcommittee, secured commitments from Vice Admiral Frank M. Bradley and Lieutenant General Dagvin R.M. Anderson, nominees to be Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and Commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), respectively, on integrating and protecting reforms from Republican and Democratic administrations on civilian harm prevention. Senator Warren also secured support from Vice Admiral Bradley to partner with outside experts to conduct a longitudinal study of blast overpressure.
Senator Warren has continued to lead the charge in pushing Trump administration nominees to prioritize civilian harm prevention. In his March 2025 nomination hearing, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby agreed with Senator Warren that civilian harm prevention is crucial to national security and that commanders can make better decisions in the field when they are trained on how to avoid civilian casualties.
During the hearing, Senator Warren highlighted that the outgoing head of SOCOM, General Fenton, confirmed that civilian harm experts have “assisted commanders and their staffs in mitigating civilian harm without compromising lethality” and that their knowledge has “enhanced precision, preserving legitimacy and enabling mission success.” Vice Admiral Bradley committed to keeping civilian harm prevention as a “focus for our command” and affirmed it is “a critical obligation” for all Department of Defense (DoD) personnel using or overseeing lethal force to protect civilians, saying, “it is critical to our success and competition.”
Similarly, Lieutenant General Anderson said prioritizing civilian harm mitigation planning “is a critically important show of our values” and that he would carry forward efforts to work with regional partners on civilian harm prevention and investigating incidents of civilian harm.
Senator Warren also raised her concerns about the high levels of traumatic brain injuries caused by blast overpressure and the need to address the long-term effects—an initiative that has bipartisan support in both the House and Senate versions of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (FY26 NDAA). In response, Vice Admiral Bradley supported DoD working with outside experts and organizations to study the long-term effects of blast overpressure.
“People are more important than hardware, and the critical part of those people are the intellectual capacity… We see them as a critical contract with our operators and our operators' families to ensure that we keep them sustainable,” said Vice Admiral Bradley.
Senator Warren secured key wins earlier this month during the markup of the FY26 NDAA, including bipartisan support for a provision requiring DoD to provide a congressional briefing on the feasibility of conducting a study on the long-term effects of blast overpressure exposure. In September 2024, Senator Warren led a forum in Massachusetts on the importance of addressing these issues with leading brain health personnel at DoD and experts from Home Base, a national nonprofit organization in Charlestown that treats invisible wounds of veterans, service members, military families, and families of the fallen.
Transcript: Hearings to examine the nominations of Vice Admiral Frank M. Bradley, USN, to be admiral and Commander, United States Special Operation Command, and Lieutenant General Dagvin R.M. Anderson, USAF, to be general and Commander, United States Africa Command
Senate Armed Services Committee
July 22, 2025
Senator Elizabeth Warren: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and congratulations to both of you on your nominations.
So, the American military is built to defeat our enemies, not to create more of them, and that is why Republican and Democratic administrations have worked to reduce risks to innocent civilians as part of military operations. In fact, the last Trump administration issued the DoD's first instruction to establish policies to mitigate civilian harm after concerns grew about civilian casualties in the campaign against ISIS. Now, one of the tools that commanders now have in the toolkit is working with civilian harm and mitigation response advisors, from refining war games to real attack planning in the Middle East and Africa operations, and more.
Vice Admiral Bradley, your predecessor at Special Operations Command, recently said that these experts “assisted commanders and their staffs in mitigating civilian harm without compromising lethality.” What's more, their knowledge “enhanced precision, preserving legitimacy, and enabling mission success.”
So, Vice Admiral Bradley, if you are confirmed, will you commit to keeping civilian harm prevention experts at SOCOM to advise you and your team?
Vice Admiral Frank M. Bradley: Senator, first, just to resonate, it is not only an obligation to adhere to the law of armed conflict to protect civilians. It is critical to our success and competition to represent our values. I believe that every uniform, every civilian, and every contractor that is employed or in oversight of the use of lethal force has a critical obligation to be able to do that, and I do commit to keeping that as a focus for our command if confirmed.
Senator Warren: Thank you. That is a strong answer, and I appreciate it. You know, other tools in the toolkit here are the civilian harm mitigation and response action plan and DOD policy instruction on civilian harm, which outline DoD plans and policies to reduce civilian harm risks. AFRICOM has made progress in implementing these policies, including through training allies and partners on how to reduce risks to innocent civilians. We are serving as a model that our other partners are now beginning to adopt. In May, the Nigerian Air Force announced its own civilian harm prevention plan. These are efforts that save innocent lives.
Lieutenant General Anderson, if you're confirmed, will you carry forward these efforts to integrate civilian harm mitigation planning into AFRICOM operations and train allies in the region to help them do the same?
Lieutenant General Dagvin R.M. Anderson: Senator, to echo Vice Admiral Bradley's importance of this: this is a critically important show of our values. It's also important that we maintain the laws of armed conflict, and, when we engage with our partners, that we help them educate and that we model this. And this has been something that when I was at Special Operations Command Africa, we did. We worked with partners, and when we saw things or heard of things that were credible, we encouraged them to investigate and to look into this, and then we gave them assistance as needed in order for them to conduct their own investigation. So I will continue, if confirmed, to take that on at AFRICOM.
Senator Warren: I appreciate that. I want to get one other point here, because we also need to reduce harm to our own special operators. I've worked with Senator Ernst and others on this committee for years to address high levels of brain injury caused by blast over pressure exposed service members have reported debilitating symptoms, from seizures to depression to suicidality. And now, preliminary research is showing high rates of heart disease, chronic pain, hypertension, even links to brain cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. Clearly, we have a lot more we need to learn.
So, let me ask Vice Admiral Bradley, if confirmed, you'll oversee tens of thousands of Special Operations personnel. Do you support DoD partnering with outside experts to study the long-term effects of blast overpressure?
Vice Admiral Bradley: Senator, I do. I have seen great benefit from our partnerships with academia and other organizations that are studying this problem critically. Our number one soft truth is that people are more important than hardware, and the critical part of those people is the intellectual capacity. Of course, that is jeopardized by these brain health issues, and we see them as a critical contract with our operators and our operators’ families to ensure that we keep them sustainable.
Senator Warren: I appreciate that very, very much. If you're confirmed, I'll be calling on you to help us with that. There's language in both the House and the Senate NDAA that would help us get this study, and there are lots of organizations like Home Base Massachusetts who have the expertise to help us get these answers. We owe this to our service members. Thank you.
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