MC1 Anthony Walker/US Navy via AP
- Two Navy SEALs have been missing since an operation off Somalia on Thursday.
- A search and rescue operation is underway. Reports say the SEALs fell into the water.
- Their chances of survival are slim, but their elite training gives them a shot, analysts said.
Two US Navy SEALs who went missing off the coast of Somalia have little chance of survival after four days, military experts said.
But their world-class training in water survival give them better chances than most people.
The two SEALs were climbing aboard a vessel during a nighttime operation on Thursday in the Gulf of Aden when heavy waves knocked one into the water, unnamed US officials told the Associated Press.
The other one dived in, following Navy SEAL protocol to aid a comrade in distress, per AP. Both disappeared.
The US Central Command, or CENTCOM, announced on Friday that a search and rescue operation was underway, but it has given no updates since.
Reached by Business Insider early on Monday, a Pentagon spokesperson said they "have nothing new to provide." The US Fleet Forces Command didn't respond to requests for an update.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby on Sunday told CBS's Face The Nation that the search was "still ongoing."
The lack of new information suggests the two SEALs are dead, according to Richard Kouyoumdjian Inglis, a Lieutenant Commander in the Chilean Naval Reserve.
"If they were alive, they would have found them," Inglis told Business Insider. He said: "SEALs can be located above the water at all times. Below the water, it is more difficult."
But according to Mark Cancian, a retired US Marine Corps colonel who is now a senior advisor with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the sailors' elite training does give them a chance.
"Because these are SEALs and have been trained extensively in water survival, CENTCOM extended the length of the search time," he told BI.
SEALs spend more than a year on initial training, which includes basic underwater demolition, and then the following 18 months in pre-deployment training and intensive specialized training, per the US Navy website.
Even so, the two sailors have now been missing for four days.
"No matter what the apparent water temperature, a human immersed in the ocean will eventually suffer hypothermia," Sam Tangredi, a retired US Navy captain, told BI.
"Four days is a long time to tread water, even in a very calm sea," he said.
Tangredi added that: "The fact that they were not [found] is concerning. At this point, all we can do is search and pray."