The Chief of Naval Operations, ADM Mike Mullen, recently proclaimed that the enterprise model will be the road to follow for the Navy as a whole. His message was clear: The good work begun by the Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAE) will provide a better model for the many diverse communities in the Navy to partner and work together to provide combat-ready naval forces at the right cost. Mullen’s decision to “go enterprise” comes one year after his predecessor, ADM Vern Clark, had declared, “We are holding you [the NAE] up as the example for the way things ought to be done. We are encouraged by the progress that you are making.”
Said Mullen, “The NAE has been a terrific example, [enabling us] to figure out the best way to move together in the future and try to add a complete understanding of the whole picture.” Simply put, the NAE is a better way to integrate the parts of Naval Aviation into a better functioning whole. It’s a way to drive readiness, manage costs and optimize the processes of procurement, maintenance, training and operations.
The NAE is a warfighting partnership, whose mission is to deliver the right force, with the right readiness, at the right cost, at the right time — today and in the future. The NAE creates a forum where interdependent issues affecting multiple commands can be resolved on an enterprisewide basis. NAE enables all elements of the enterprise to communicate better; it fosters organizational alignment and encourages inter-agency and inter-service integration; it stimulates a culture of productivity; and it facilitates change when change is needed. Working together optimizes the use of existing resources, manages the costs associated with generating readiness and harnesses change as a positive force within Navy and Marine Corps aviation.
Functionally, the NAE offers a way to provide readiness and at the same time control costs — an effort requiring the coordination of all commands involved. The members of the NAE Board of Directors are:
• Commander, Naval Air Forces (CNAF)
• Naval Air Systems Command (NavAir)
• Commander, Naval Air Forces Atlantic (CNAL)
• Air Warfare Division (OpNav N88)
• Fleet Readiness Division (OpNav N43)
• The NAE Total Force Readiness Lead
• The NAE Chief Financial Officer
Other commands including Naval Supply Systems Command (NavSup), Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR), Naval Sea Systems Command (NavSea), Naval Inventory Control Point (NAVICP), Naval Education and Training Command (NETC), the Marine Corps Deputy Commandant for Aviation in addition to Joint Commands, including the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), also participate, as they, too, impact readiness and cost.
The NAE measures its efficiency and effectiveness through a single fleet-driven metric of aircraft and aircraft carriers ready for tasking at reduced cost. This metric tracks how well the NAE delivers on the things it values:
• Costwise readiness (tied to demands of fleet operators)
• Improved time on-wing (better equipment with better maintenance so that it stays on the aircraft longer)
• Greater speed/reduced cycle time (aircraft and
components spending less time in maintenance)
• Improved reliability (quality)
• Reduced total cost
• Implementing process efficiencies
The operational arms of the NAE are a series of cross-functional teams (CFTs) that focus on Naval Aviation readiness, on total force readiness (military, civilian and contractor personnel) and on cost management. The CFTs identify barriers, define metrics for key processes that create costwise readiness, make recommendations, initiate actions and track results. These teams have demolished the stovepipes that formerly kept aviation commands isolated and apart. In Fiscal Year 2005, for example, this team approach has enabled NAE to fly more hours for less money. The NAE was able to return 50 million dollars to Navy leadership while also covering a number of emerging budget demands within Naval Aviation that otherwise would have become unfunded requirements.
As a result of knocking down stovepipes, the NAE is developing significant changes to the way the Navy will conduct aircraft maintenance in the future. NavAir’s commander, VADM Wally Massenburg, explained that new concept to a group of depot artisans at North Island in January 2006: “We’re combining intermediate and depot maintenance in the new Fleet Readiness Centers because it’s a much smarter way to do business, much more efficient and much more effective. It drives our repairs as close to the flight line as we can. By consolidating maintenance, streamlining the supply chain for parts and reducing man-hours we can reduce the costs of our business today in order to realize our future and buy the airplanes we need.”
Commander Naval Air Forces, VADM James Zortman, spoke to the same group about the importance of teamwork: “Enterprise allows us, for everybody to see, how we’re doing as a team. And when you do that, all of a sudden, the guy in the depot and the guy on the ship are not only interested in what they’re doing, they start to work together to find the best way to produce ready-for-tasking aircraft. We’re not in the business of fixing airplanes. We’re in the business of flying them to produce warfighting readiness. Right as we speak, that’s happening over Iraq. There isn’t a ‘wait till tomorrow and we’ll have an airplane up’ [attitude]. We need reliable, capable aircraft with trained people flying them, maintained in a way so they can deliver day or night when the soldier or Marine on the ground needs them.”
In March of 2006 the NAE held an Investment Alignment Symposium for 300 Naval Aviation and industry leaders. ADM Mullen spoke about priorities and goals in today’s Navy.
“I’m very anxious to view what’s going on here,” Mullen said, “which is partnering with industry so we’re all on the same sheet. And being on that same sheet, we move forward. I believe to the degree we can do that together, almost anything is possible, and to the degree that we separate, almost nothing is possible. That’s a real fundamental undertaking for me, whether it’s shipbuilding, aviation or any other part of the business. We’ve got to understand each other and then move out.”
Mullen also talked about flexibility of warfighter response and how important that capability is: “I believe that this is the maritime century and that the Navy/Marine Corps team will be in position to make a difference, to be dispersed, netted, disaggregated, aggregated, depending on whether it’s a theater, a security engagement kind of operation, or whether it’s a major combat operation. We’re going to be called in ways that we just can’t imagine right now. And there are a lot of people depending on our ability to respond.”
Achieving that capability will require making some tough decisions, Mullen said, but he’s confident in today’s Navy and encouraged by the teamwork of the NAE.
“The Naval Aviation Enterprise has been a terrific example . . . able to do what we do now and figure out the best way to move together in the future and to try to add a complete understanding of the whole picture. If in four years I could take the NAE and make it the Navy Enterprise, I’d be a happy guy.”
It appears that the four years may be coming around sooner than we expected. Navy Enterprise is on the way.