AETC, AFMC teams pioneer new flying risk app Published Feb. 12, 2025 Air Education and Training Command Safety Directorate JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas -- Air Education and Training Command is deploying a new ground-breaking web-based system to retool how aircrew members assess risk prior to every flight, while providing a clearer picture of risk for flying unit commanders. Formal risk assessments have been a part of Air Force flying operations since 1996, when the Air Force chief of staff directed flying units to implement the Operational Risk Management (ORM) program in response to its success in U.S. Army aviation. Since then, each aircrew member completes a risk assessment prior to every sortie whether training, flying in combat or conducting non-combat operations. While the process remains similar across all flying units, each squadron executes the process independently, leading to slight variations even across units with identical missions, according to Col. William Phillips, AETC director of safety. Additionally, units often discard the assessments once the sortie successfully concludes, resulting in a loss of the data, he said. In summer 2022, AETC Safety attempted to gauge how the operational tempo of the command’s flying units might lead to mishap risks, but the team lacked the data required to complete the project, Phillips said. “We were amazed that the risk assessments were happening prior to every flight, but none of the results were being collected, aggregated or made available for mishap prevention analysis,” Phillips pointed out. “In safety, mishap prevention is what we’re always striving for, but predicting the next accident is hard. And without data, it’s impossible.” Later that same year, AETC Commander Lt. Gen. Brian Robinson directed his safety team to standardize the ORM process. The team set about assembling instructor pilots from each pilot training flying unit to come up with a single, standardized list of risk factors within each of the T-38C, T-6A and T-1A communities. Additionally, the safety team identified previously untapped innovation funds earmarked for software projects, enabling them to enlist the help of the Air Force Sustainment Center’s Software Directorate to begin development of a web-hosted application. The Software Directorate’s team proved instrumental in turning the vision of AETC Safety into a reality, Phillips said. After hearing the safety team’s description of how ORM was conducted, the Software Directorate proposed a solution that could be viewed from an iPad or a desktop in late 2023 and began earnest development efforts in January 2024, when the teams began meeting every two weeks to develop and field the application. By August, the app was ready for beta testing with 19th Air Force’s Detachment 24 at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas, and on Sep. 16, the 560th Flying Training Squadron at JBSA-Randolph fully transitioned all its daily flying operations to the electronic Operational Risk Management (eORM) application. By Dec. 16, eORM expanded to encompass all T-38C operations across AETC and had begun to include limited T-6 operations. T-6A operations continue to expand, and on Feb. 5, the remaining T-1 operations at Vance Air Force Base, Okla., and Columbus AFB, Miss., were incorporated as well. Fielding the new system hasn’t been without its challenges, though. “Some units expressed concern about the original, more aggressive timeline we drafted to field eORM, specifically that it would not be sufficiently tested and might negatively impact operations,” said Lt. Col. Joshua Sinkler, AETC’s Flight Safety Division chief. “In response, we reworked our timeline to increase the length of the beta test period and coordinated the new timeline through all the affected flying wings.” Sinkler, who has primarily orchestrated the project, elaborated on other hurdles the team encountered. “Some pilots expressed concerns about how the data will be used and whether or not their personal data will be available to others without a practical need to know,” he said. “In response, we implemented data controls in the software to limit the visibility of risk assessments to only key personnel within the squadron who approve the sorties.” Additionally, Sinkler explained that while sortie data more than seven days old is retained in the eORM database, it is inaccessible to users of the app and only used in aggregate to generate an overall risk picture for commander’s dashboards. “This is one of the most promising features eORM offers – the ability to collect risk management data and create a ‘10,000-foot view’ of flying risk within the flying squadron,” Phillips said. While still in its earliest stages of development, the AFMC software team and AETC Safety are actively working with AETC’s Studies and Analysis Squadron to develop an Envision-based dashboard useful to commanders at every echelon, from the squadron to the major command level. The dashboard will conceptually enable commanders to see how the risk levels determined by eORM for each sortie combine into a risk picture for the whole squadron, Phillips said. Additionally, as that picture changes over time, commanders should be able to see trends or make comparisons with how risk has been affected by past operational decisions, he added. Moreover, the team intends to combine squadron data into a wing, 19th AF and AETC commander picture as resources allow. The team working on the project sees this as a critical tool in the service's lethality, where military contingencies may require flying training units to increase training output or make other decisions that will impact the risk of flying operations. As the safety and software teams complete the fielding of eORM for all primary training aircraft, they are beginning to implement it for fighter training at F-35A and F-16 formal training units across AETC, with crewed aircraft units to follow by late summer 2025, Phillips said. Additionally, given opportunity and resources, the teams want to explore how a similar application could be developed for use in high-risk, non-flying operations, such as aircraft maintenance, security forces and firefighting, he added. “It’s still too early to tell exactly how far this project will go,” Phillips said, “but at a time when we’re seeing such focus on risk across the Department of the Air Force, it’s exciting to think we’re gaining traction on developing new tools in this area that may prove critical in the years ahead.”