Risk is assessed on a case by case basis. When people ask "is the risk of this system acceptable given its mission role" the answer depends on all of the charac

Risk is assessed on a case by case basis. When people ask "is the risk of this system acceptable given its mission role" the answer depends on all of the characteristics of the system. In the case of military aircraft that means that both the fact that the airframe may be dynamical unstable in flight and that every crew member has an ejection seat are taken into account. And whether or not the plane is expected to be used in a combat environment will play a huge role in the acceptable levels of risk as well. To blithely say "oh well, military planes do X so X must be fine for civilian aviation as well" is either intellectually dishonest or fundamentally naive.