KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- Most Airmen and Guardians don’t consider system safety when thinking about the implementation of safety programs. However, it’s an integral part of safety and risk management that touches each discipline throughout the Department of the Air Force every day. So, what is system safety?
System safety is defined as “the application of engineering and management principles, criteria and techniques to achieve acceptable risk within the constraints of operational effectiveness and suitability, time and cost throughout all phases of the system life cycle.” More simply, it means safety professionals work alongside operators, engineers, and developers to identify potential hazards at the start of system or asset acquisition to mitigate any risks to mission success and continue to do so throughout its lifecycle.
At the Air Force Safety Center, our team collaborates with those throughout the acquisition and safety communities in addition to working with Airmen and Guardians in the field to set standards and author system safety policies. Within AFSEC divisions, professionals are ensuring the standards and policies accurately and effectively inform their respective disciplines.
While system safety does look very different across the various mission sets, subject matter experts are identifying risks and mitigating hazards specific to their discipline. These actions then provide operational commanders with crucial risk awareness and risk management tools to assure that mission’s success.
Aviation System Safety
The aviation system safety process is executed by each aircraft program often involving acquisition and sustainment contracts that track safety integration throughout the program’s lifecycle.
Starting in the design phase, it is an integral part of the overall systems engineering processes owned by the Chief Engineer assigned to each program. As such, there are often risk decisions made that impact the cost, schedule, and performance of the system. Depending on the assessed risk level, the decision to accept or mitigate a risk will be balanced against available resources, and ultimately be made by a Program Manager, Program Executive Officer, or Service Acquisition Executive with concurrence from the using community and input from stakeholders.
For aircraft, the AFSEC Aviation Safety Division is typically part of the System Safety Group for each program, which is chartered to oversee and manage the application of system safety throughout the lifecycle of the program. Additionally, the division reviews all “Serious” and “High-Risk” assessment packages that are being considered to ensure the risk acceptance authority can make a well-informed decision prior to exposing personnel to these risks.
“System-related mishaps have been an on-going concern for the DAF,” said Mark Ruddell, Chief Engineer, Aviation Safety Division. “Over the past five years, the DAF experience approximately 30 system/maintenance related class A and B mishaps annually that cost about $230M per year. To address these mishaps, the Aviation Safety Division is currently leading a System Safety Working Group within AFSEC to rewrite DAFI 91-202, The Department of the Air Force Mishap Prevention Program, and developing a new DAF manual on system safety that will clarify guidance on implementing an effective system safety program.”
Space System Safety
Space system safety ensures its systems function as intended for the entire lifecycle, without posing risks to people, the system, or the environment. It involves using engineering and management principles to identify and mitigate risks during the system's design and development phase. For space systems, system safety is primarily focused on the upfront stage, prior to launch, to ensure risks are addressed before the system is sent into space as on-going maintenance on these systems is much harder or nearly impossible once launched into space.
The U.S. Space Force has system safety professionals integrated into multiple units across the force, including Space Systems Command, Space Operations Command, and Space Training and Readiness Command. Safety professionals are also embedded within the Air Force Research Laboratory, ensuring prototypes and technology payloads are well designed and any failure can provide lessons learned in a controlled environment. Most importantly, they work to identify, track, and communicate risks for mitigation or acceptance.
“Launch is the most visible space discipline where safety can be seen, but other space disciplines are no less important,” said Lt. Col. Allison Dempsey, Space Safety Engineering Branch chief “A space system many may recognize because we all rely on it: GPS. With the growing reliance on this space system, space professionals have been designing, testing, and improving on different space systems to augment and protect this crucial asset.”
An example of these safety systems includes the Navigation Technology Satellite-3. In 2024, it was tested at Edwards AFB and is intended to augment the GPS constellation as well as protect the system within contested environments. Space system safety professionals assist in identifying potential risks to parts, subsystems, systems, or systems of systems (including software systems) to analyze, document, communicate, and try to mitigate or gain acceptance of them.
Weapon System Safety
Weapons System Safety encompasses a broad and diverse portfolio, including Nuclear Surety, Directed Energy Weapons Systems, and conventional weapons testing, fielding, and sustainment. The Department of Defense requires nuclear surety policy to ensure all procedures, equipment, and people are certified before interacting with nuclear weapons and nuclear weapon systems. The AFSEC Weapons Safety Division implements minimum design criteria to mitigate risk and maximize nuclear surety throughout a weapons system's lifecycle.
“Weapons system safety includes more than just nuclear weapons,” said Col. Andrew Lazar, Weapons Safety Division chief. “In addition to DoD and AFSEC nuclear surety, weapons system safety includes nonnuclear weapons systems. What’s more is that we work on the Nonnuclear Munitions Safety Board, established in 1965, to assist in conducting design reviews, assessments, approvals, and certifications for non-nuclear munitions throughout their entire lifecycle.”
Directed energy and laser weapons systems undergo a similar safety process to minimize hazards and meet safety standards. The Hazards of Electromagnetic Radiation to Ordnance certification process ensures that any single unit, device, or subassembly that uses electrical energy to produce an explosive, pyrotechnic, thermal, or mechanical output, meets minimum safety requirements and is protected against electromagnetic radiation. Examples of weapons system safety specific to nuclear safety design process include the Long-Range Stand-Off Cruise Missile, Sentinel ICBM, B-21, and Weapons Generation Facilities.
Occupational System Safety
“Occupational system safety touches all disciplines,” said Robert Baker, Occupational Safety Division’s Chief Engineer and Chief of the Publications and Standards Branch within SEG. “All systems spend some or all of their operational lives on the ground. During that time, operators and maintainers interact with the system. Our job is to work with the program offices and manufacturers to design out hazards, where possible, or identify alternatives to mitigate the hazards. Some systems in which occupational safety was involved with include the F-35, KC-46, VC-25B, and Sentinel systems. We work to build safety into the system for our Airmen and Guardians.”
Other examples include 3DELRR (Radar System), up-armored dune buggies, SatCom Antennas (mobile and fixed), Non-Lethal Weapon Systems (offensive and defensive), powered-exoskeletons, advanced runway paint systems, NEXRAD Weather Radars, and wearable confined space monitoring systems.
Additionally, occupational system safety collaborates with other divisions system safety to consider occupational-specific aspects of working with the systems. For example, occupational system safety will collaborate with aircraft programs to identify ground and industrial considerations in ground handling and maintenance operations.
Moreover, occupational system safety has participated in Prevention through Design, the application of system safety principles to facility design. This methodology has been used with many facilities, including Combat Arms Training and Maintenance ranges, permanent and mobile radar facilities, anechoic chambers and flow-through hangar designs. These considerations allow those working in the facilities to mitigate risks that may not directly impact the systems but rather those working in these facilities and in close proximity to specific systems.
Occupational system safety also includes the Process Safety Management of highly hazardous chemicals, which are outlined in Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations. Further, the AFSEC Occupational Safety Division works collaboratively with the American National Standards Institute in the development and maintenance of several national consensus standards like ANSI Z359, The Fall Protection Code, and ANSI Z590.3, Prevention Through Design. The occupational safety division also works with the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, reviewing and contributing to the Unified Facilities Criteria and the Whole Building Design Guide.
--
No matter where you find yourselves working, you are most certainly working with a program and in a facility that has been designed and developed using system safety. The number one priority of system safety is to keep our Airmen and Guardians safe and our assets working properly, which starts in design and ends when a program is retired.