Sexual assaults reported by women at military academies rose by 23 per cent in a year across all three U.S. military branches, according to a Pentagon report.

The number of reported sexual assaults rose from 65 in 2021 to 80 during 2012 at the Army's West Point, and the Air Force and Naval Academies. 

Sexual assault is defined as everything from "groping" to "rape."

 'The Invisible War' takes on military sexual assault 'epidemic'

The Air Force had the highest number of reported sexual assaults, with the figure rising from 33 to 52.  The number of sexual assaults at West Point increased from 10 to 15. 

The Naval Academy saw a drop in reported sexual assaults from 22 to 13.

Victims of sexual assault in military say brass often ignore pleas for justice

Defense officials stress that the increase in "reported" sexual assaults appears to be the result of a more aggressive campaign by the services to encourage victims to come forward. 

Assault victims can now report a sexual assault, receive medical care, but chose to keep their report private and not pursue criminal charges against their assailant.

Although the actual number of reported Navy assaults dropped, defense officials are concerned that there appears to be a "statistical" decrease in the number of "anonymous" reports in Navy surveys.  It is feared fewer victims are willing to come forward and report such attacks.

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• Reported sex assaults leap 23 percent at US military academies

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Crew walk to the U.S. Air Force CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft at MacDill AFB in Tampa Florida in 2008.

The Air Force has fired the commander of a special operations squadron a week after a CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft in his unit crashed in Florida, NBC News confirmed on Thursday.

Lt. Col. Matt Glover, who commanded the 8th Special Operations Squadron based at Hurlburt Field in Florida, was relieved from his duties because of a loss of confidence, a military official told NBC News.

The Osprey, designed to take off and land like a helicopter and fly like a twin turboprop airplane, crashed on a training mission north of Navarre, Fla., on June 13 in a 750-square mile military training area called the Elgin Range. Five crew members were hospitalized with injuries.

On Wednesday, two of the airmen injured in the crash remained in the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, the Air Force reported. Officials are investigating.

This crash, along with a fatal MV-22 crash in Morocco in April, have raised new safety concerns among Japanese leaders and citizens ahead of an expected deployment of MV-22 Ospreys to Japan, NBC News reported. The MV-22 is the Marine Corps' version of the same aircraft.

Two Marines were killed in that crash and two more were more seriously wounded. The investigation determined that the crash was not a result of mechanical failure.

In an attempt to assuage safety concerns, several senior U.S. military officials at the Pentagon on Friday will brief a Japanese delegation on the preliminary results of the investigation into the June crash, NBC News reported.

The CV-22 Osprey’s mission is to conduct long-range infiltration, extraction and resupply missions for special operations forces, according to the U.S. Air Force web site.

The Air Force version is filled with sophisticated technology, including a missile defense system, terrain-following radar, a forward-looking infrared sensor and other electronic gear that enable it to avoid detection and defend itself on special operations missions over enemy territory, the Associated Press reported.

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Handout / U.S. Air Force via Reuters file

An F-22 Raptor fighter jet flies in a training mission during Red Flag 12-3 over the Nevada Test and Training Range.

Updated at 8 p.m. ET: The Air Force this week directed F-22 pilots to stop wearing pressure suit vests during routine flights after tests determined the garments could contribute to ongoing oxygen deprivation problems, NBC News has learned.

A senior U.S. military official said that Air Force investigators “haven’t determined definitively that this is the smoking gun that everyone is looking for” but that “this is a significant development.”

During centrifuge testing at Brooks-City Base in Texas, the Air Force was able to recreate some of the hypoxia-like symptoms that pilots have experienced in the F-22, the official told NBC News.

The testers, from the 711th Human Performance Wing, determined that the upper pressure vests do not always deflate properly, making it hard for the pilots to breathe. When tests were done in a high G environment (high levels of acceleration), some pilots could not get their breath at all, the official said.

The official added that the Air Force will continue testing to ensure they “have this situation squared away.”

Lt. Col. Edward Sholtis, a spokesman for the Air Combat Command, said the upper pressure garment is not "the" cause of physiological incidents and that investigators also are looking at the layering of other Aircrew Flight Equipment as contributing to breathing difficulties.

Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said Wednesday in a joint statement that the F-22 problems are more widespread than earlier reported.

The Air Force told the lawmakers that through May 31 there were 26.43 hypoxia or hypoxia-like incidents per 100,000 flight hours among F-22 pilots -- a rate at least 10 times higher than any other Air Force aircraft, according to the statement.

They said the equipment test results revealed this week were the result of collaboration they recommended with a Navy dive team in Panama City, Fla.

F-22 troubles were widely publicized in a May “60 Minutes” appearance by Virginia Air National Guard Capt. Joshua Wilson and Maj. Jeremy Gordon, who refused to fly the fighter jet and claimed its oxygen system was poisoning them.

"The safety of these pilots and the communities over which they fly should be everyone's paramount concern," Warner said. "The F-22 program has cost $80 billion so far, but the most expensive fighter jet in the world is useless if we cannot ensure the safety of the pilots who fly it."

“As the nation with the strongest military and the brightest minds in the world, we must make certain that we provide our men and women in uniform with the best equipment possible,” Kinzinger said.

In May, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the Air Force to restrict F-22 flights because of continuing problems with the Raptor's oxygen system. At least 22 pilots suffered from oxygen deprivation while in flight since April 2008.

Panetta ordered that all F-22 flights remain within a "proximate distance" of an airfield in case a pilot should suffer from a hypoxia event and be forced to land. Some F-22s are deployed to southwest Asia.

Panetta also ordered the Air Force to accelerate installment of a backup oxygen system in all F-22s, a process the Air Force does not expect to begin until December. The Air Force awarded a $19 million contract to Lockheed Martin Corp. to install a backup oxygen system in the F-22 Raptor that it makes.

The aircraft were grounded last year temporarily so the Air Force could study its oxygen system.

The Air Force reports that each of the aircraft costs $143 million. The U.S. Government Accountability Office, however, estimates that each F-22 cost taxpayers $412 million, if upgrades and research and development expenses are included.

Courtney Kube is NBC News' Pentagon producer. NBC News' Libby Leist contributed to this report.

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