By Joan Holland,
NAVAIR PMA 290 Public Affairs

PATUXENT RIVER, Md. — NAVRIIP continues to foster the Warfighter focus and communications necessary to optimize current and future readiness across the Naval Aviation Enterprise. The process works, as evidenced by the current method of managing the Navy’s Maritime Surveillance Aircraft (MSA) Program.

The goal of NAVAIR’s MSA Program Office (PMA 290) is to partner with the Warfighter and industry to provide cost-wise readiness and dominant combat power via the MSA to the Fleet.

The MSA program currently includes three platforms, the S-3B Viking, the P-3C Orion, and the EP-3E ARIES II. The varied functions of these maritime surveillance aircraft include land-based signals intelligence (SIGINT) reconnaissance, antisubmarine warfare (ASW) and overhead/mission tanking.

“NAVRIIP provides a valuable opportunity for us to share ideas and points of contact,” says Cmdr. Ron Carlson, MSA program S-3 Viking department head. “We work on problems and issues weekly in the barrier identification and removal teams.”

The NAVRIIP “provider” cross-functional team ensures metrics for processes are defined, collected and analyzed to assist in the formulation of recommendations to enhance cost-wise readiness. Decisions are made based on the metric based analysis, actions are initiated and results are tracked.

The objective is to identify, minimize or eliminate readiness degraders that ultimately impact aircraft availability. While the goal of NAVRIIP is to optimize readiness, the process is also cost focused in order to ensure limited resources are applied where needed most.
Carlson cited one particular cost-saving success story with the S-3 aircraft that he directly attributes to NAVRIIP. “Some cards of the right-hand control logic assembly (CLA) in the S-3 are disposable items. Through our work with NAVRIIP, we directly communicated with the folks at the grass roots of the maintenance programs. Together we are able to find a way to reuse these cards instead of throwing them away and buying new ones,” he said.

Using the latest technology, the CLA cards are now checked, refurbished and reused. This new process will reap cost savings both now and in the future. Savings will be realized during the current acquisition cycle, making the funds available for future readiness.

This success is credited to the cross-functional team’s work that includes members from PMA 290, aircraft intermediate maintenance departments, NAVAIR depots, air wing maintenance, and Naval Inventory Control Point.

A tool that helps identify these kinds of opportunities is the aviation financial analysis tool. This program pulls together information needed to identify and track cost drivers and gives teams an additional forum to share information. Also, it allows team members to develop efficiencies that may benefit other platforms.

“For the P-3 Orion aircraft, NAVRIIP is a critical element in ensuring we maintain necessary readiness levels, while at the same time dropping inventory levels and executing our sustainment bridge plan,” said MSA Program Manager Capt. Steve Eastburg. The future replacement for the P-3 aircraft is the Multi-Mission Maritime aircraft which is currently in source selection.

“One of the strengths of the NAVRIIP program is that it provides architecture to facilitate visibility and support for cost-wise readiness issues,” said P-3 Assistant Program Manager for Logistics Cmdr. Pat Buckley. “The metrics we gather allow everyone to analyze data to determine cause and effect. The resulting analysis is invaluable in identifying issues and is key to formulating follow-on recommendations.”

Metrics associated with NAVRIIP allow platform communities to measure progress. For example, last year, the P-3 community realized a significant cost-wise readiness benefit, a 25 percent net gain in non-deployed, ready-for-tasking aircraft. This outcome allowed the P-3 squadrons to better execute their at-home training plan and to better prepare for deployment.

Another cost-wise success story, directly attributable to the NAVRIIP program, is the cost-savings derived from a shipping process improvement. For years, P-3 propellers have been shipped in wooden crates. On occasion, the crates and contents are damaged during shipment and result in damage to six or seven propellers per year.

The P-3 Propulsion Barrier Removal Team identified a commercially available high-strength plastic container for shipping the propellers that will significantly reduce the likelihood of damage during shipment. The program projects this sensible fix will result in cost-savings of $500,000 per year.

“The NAVRIIP process often accelerates initiatives that seemed to be moving at a snail’s pace due to the barriers that had to be worked through,” said Buckley. “The bottom line is that NAVRIIP makes it easier to get the job done in terms of getting visibility and support for cost-wise readiness initiatives that will hopefully keep those at the tip of the spear ready to take on the next challenge.”

For more information on the MSA program, contact Joan Holland at (301) 342-0207.