This research brief examines how suicide prevention in the U.S. military can move beyond responding to crises toward addressing the conditions that precede them. Drawing on U.S. military research, institutional reviews and fieldwork in Ukraine, it explores how everyday service conditions, barriers to care and institutional trust shape service members’ well-being. It highlights the potential of proactive, non-clinical peer support to reach personnel who might otherwise never seek help. The brief proposes principles for piloting and evaluating such approaches, while emphasizing the military’s responsibility to improve the institutional conditions that contribute to suicide risk.