These are tiny numbers. Those deaths are certainly tragic, and I wish fervently for the perpetrators to be held to account, but I think it's incredibly irresponsible for journalists to try to sensationalize this as a major problem for the army when the data shows that it is not. A woman is incredibly unlikely to be murdered if she joins the army, just as she would be if she didn't join.
Women in the Army were disproportionately less likely to be at risk of combat. So the comparison about being "less likely to be killed by enemy combatants" is itself incredibly clickbaity.
"the Army took no action to address the string of female soldiers attacked in their barracks"
"Between 2021 and 2023, the Army recorded a total of 16 homicides among active-duty women, Hagan told The Intercept. The data provided to The Intercept for its FOIA request counts only nine.[…] If the same pattern of undercounting extends across the full 14-year span of our data, the true toll could be substantially higher."
"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth eliminated the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. It had existed for nearly 75 years, focusing on issues including sexual harassment and assault."
"A Project on Government Oversight investigation revealed thousands of abuse cases involving Army personnel were mishandled, many never entered into tracking systems. Investigators could only look at 10 out of more than 60 Army installations."