Before the Enterprise The Naval Aviation Enterprise was the trailblazer for enterprise development within the Navy. The very beginning of our Enterprise stemmed from an acknowledgement that “business as usual” was not creating a more efficient or effective warfighting force. In the late 1990s, Naval Aviation units were experiencing excessive variance in their readiness levels over time. Units would achieve the highest possible readiness levels for deployments, dip below readiness expectations while not deployed, and then be faced with the need to spend significant resources ramping up their readiness levels for the next deployment. Despite a continued reduction in assets (flight hours, aircraft and manpower), the overall cost to Naval Aviation continued to increase at a pace that, over the long term, had eroded Naval Aviation’s buying power. Naval Aviation also faced the need to control the rising costs of operating and sustaining aging aircraft and legacy equipment. There was a need to manage how best to recapitalize our aircraft, while keeping our aging aircraft flying longer as the purchase of their replacements moved further into the future. Change was sought. The Beginning of Our Enterprise In 2004 Naval Aviation’s enterprise approach officially became the Naval Aviation Enterprise, building partnerships of Navy and eventually Marine Corps Aviation leaders and organizations committed to working together to advance and sustain Naval Aviation warfighting capabilities at an affordable cost. The Naval Aviation Enterprise built on the successful efforts of previous process improvement efforts, such as multiple Air Board gatherings, the Naval Aviation Pilot Production Improvement Program (NAPPI) in the 1990s, the Aviation Maintenance and Supply Readiness (AMSR) group and the Naval Aviation Readiness Integrated Improvement Program (NAVRIIP). The Evolution of the Enterprise The evolution of the enterprise framework and the guiding principles represented new territory for the Navy—an innovation in thinking and action. Any such innovation is sustained only through active participation of Naval Aviation stakeholders focused on achieving a shared mission. The leaders within the Enterprise, current and former, have navigated the course of the Enterprise with that in mind. The Naval Aviation Enterprise’s mission is to advance and sustain Naval Aviation warfighting capabilities at an affordable cost … today and in the future. We will achieve this through initiatives ranging from aggressive cost analysis to extensive and increased simulator usage. The end result is cost-effective combat readiness consistent with service specific requirements. Unique to the Navy, applying the Readiness Kill Chain (RKC) methodology will ensure wholeness across readiness pillars. Current Enterprise Initiatives In response to readiness requirements for strike fighters in 2018, the NAE instituted a readiness initiative to fundamentally change the way Naval Aviation and its type/model/series (TMS) communities maintain readiness for the fleet. The Enterprise initiated Naval Sustainment System-Aviation (NSS-A), which has evolved significantly from its initial implementation in 2018 to drive strike fighter mission-capable (MC) numbers to 80%. No longer a sprint nor a campaign, as its name System implies, NSS-A is a modernized sustainment ecosystem designed to achieve and maintain naval aircraft readiness goals by leveraging best practices across communities to drive improvement in maintenance, supply and governance activities. Seven pillars work together to form the foundation of NSS-A. Their combined efforts reach across siloed activities to create a holistic approach to maintaining naval aircraft readiness goals. The seven pillars are: Maintenance Operations Center/Aircraft-on-Ground Cell (MOC/AOG) O-level Reform Fleet Readiness Center (FRC) Reform Supply Chain Reform Engineering and Maintenance Reform Government, Accountability and Organization Cost NSS-A has proven itself effective, and with that proof, NAE already has expanded it from F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to the EA-18G Growler and E-2D Hawkeye communities; more TMS will implement the practices in the coming months. As a result of this success, NSS-A has advanced to become much more than a one-time initiative—this is now how the Enterprise does business. It is the NAE at work through collaboration, transparency and information sharing. Following a deliberate rollout, every TMS eventually will adopt and employ the activities and governance of NSS-A, using it to increase their MC readiness. In addition to implementing NSS-A throughout the Enterprise, additional efforts have been instituted to ensure Naval Aviation improves MC and full-mission-capable (FMC) aircraft throughout the fleet. Over the past year, NSS-A as well as complementary initiatives have introduced a maintenance reset process that involves robust actions to address corrosion; an end-to-end supply chain evaluation that makes use of parts NAE already owns; and improvements to lethality and survivability systems, especially in strike fighters, that turn MC aircraft into FMC aircraft. Alongside of readiness initiatives, the NAE launched the Naval Aviation Analytics Consortium (NAAC). The NAAC improves the quality of analytics across the Enterprise to ensure NAE collects, analyzes and acts on correct, clean, meaningful data to help measure results and ensure those results enable Naval Aviation to fly, fight, lead and win every day.