DD Form 2977: Fillable PDF
Deliberate Risk Assessment Worksheet
U.S. Department of Defense
Documents hazards, risk levels, and mitigation controls for planned military operations and training events.
Reviewed July 2026
This form must be opened in Adobe Acrobat Reader to fill it out. Browsers show a placeholder page instead of the form.
How it works
- 1
Download the form. Save the official PDF to your device.
- 2
Open it in Adobe Acrobat Reader and fill in each field. Browsers show a placeholder page for this form type.
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Save and submit the completed form following the official instructions.
DD Form 2977, the Deliberate Risk Assessment Worksheet, is the Department of Defense document for planning risk management on missions, operations, and training events. It records the hazards a planner identified, how severe and likely each one is, the controls that will reduce the risk, and the leader who accepted the residual risk.
The DoD publishes DD Form 2977 as a dynamic XFA PDF, so it will not open in a web browser or in most simple PDF viewers. Download the form from this page, save it to your computer, and complete it in Adobe Acrobat Reader on Windows or macOS.
What is DD Form 2977 used for
The worksheet documents the deliberate risk management process, which moves through a standard sequence: identify the hazards in a planned activity, assess each hazard's probability and severity, develop controls and make risk decisions, implement the controls, and supervise and evaluate during execution.
For each hazard, the form captures an initial risk level, the specific controls that will be applied, who implements each control, and the residual risk level that remains after the controls are in place. Risk levels run from low through medium and high to extremely high.
Who uses DD Form 2977
Planners, operations staff, range safety officers, convoy commanders, and small unit leaders complete the worksheet whenever a mission or training event calls for a deliberate risk assessment. It is a DoD-wide form, and the Army in particular has detailed doctrine on completing it in its risk management publications.
The person who prepares the worksheet is usually not the person who approves it. Approval authority is tied to the residual risk level, so higher residual risk pushes the decision to a more senior commander under each service's rules.
How to complete DD Form 2977
Open the downloaded form in Adobe Acrobat Reader, not in a browser tab, and work through it in order:
- Mission or task description, the date range, and the preparer's information
- Subtasks or steps of the operation, listed so each can be assessed separately
- Hazards for each step, with an initial risk level based on probability and severity
- Controls for each hazard, how each control will be implemented, and who is responsible
- Residual risk for each hazard and an overall residual risk for the mission
- The approval block, where the appropriate authority accepts or rejects the risk; save your work often, since the form does not save itself
Where the form goes
The completed worksheet is routed to the commander or leader with authority to accept the overall residual risk, following your service's and unit's procedures. Once signed, it stays with the operations order, training plan, or event file it supports, and units retain it according to their records rules.
There is no external agency submission. The worksheet is an internal planning and accountability document.
Frequently asked questions
DD Form 2977 is a dynamic XFA PDF. Browsers and lightweight PDF viewers cannot render it and show only a placeholder page. Save the file to your computer and open it in Adobe Acrobat Reader on a desktop computer to see the full worksheet.
Initial risk is the level assessed before any controls are applied. Residual risk is what remains after the planned controls are in place. The approval authority makes the acceptance decision based on the residual risk.
It depends on the residual risk level. Each service assigns approval authority by risk level, so a low risk event may be approved at company level while extremely high risk requires a much more senior commander. Check your service's risk management guidance.
No. It is a Department of Defense form used across the services, though the Army's risk management doctrine gives some of the most detailed instructions for completing it.
No. Because it is a dynamic XFA PDF, the form must be completed in Adobe Acrobat Reader on a desktop computer. Download it, save it locally, and open it from there.
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