Navy aviation leaders spoke with industry partners, active-duty commanding officers and executive officers and delivered updates on Naval Aviation Enterprise goals, requirements and progress toward readiness at the 2018 Tailhook Reunion in Reno, Nevada.

Vice Adm. DeWolfe Miller, Commander, Naval Air Forces; Rear Adm. Roy Kelley, Commander, Naval Air Forces Atlantic and Rear Adm. Scott Conn, Director, Air Warfare, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations provided updates and answered questions from attendees.

“Readiness around naval aviation certainly isn’t where we want it to be,” said Miller. “We’re tackling this issue head-on, it is our focus. We are working on aligning the AIMDs [Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Departments] and our depot maintenance – how we have our supply chains aligned to readiness at the flight line. We are realigning how we do business by using lessons that we learned from before and we are already seeing a difference.”

They also addressed the relationship between naval aviation and industry leaders.

“We still have a lot of challenges related to the partnership between us and industry,” explained Miller. “While there are no easy solutions due to the nature of how transactions occur, we [naval aviation] are committed to finding a solution.”

Conn, who leads naval aviation’s efforts to balance warfighting requirements with available funding, echoed Miller’s desire to streamline industry partnerships alignment with readiness recovery efforts.

“I need every resource I can get,” said Conn. “We are partners in this readiness recovery, but we [naval aviation] don’t have all the solutions so we need all the help we can get – especially the financial aspects of our business and I’m all ears to how we can do better.”

Kelley explained that it is the teamwork between industry leaders and naval aviation that will lead to success.

“It’s not a matter of us or them, it’s we as a team that will make this work,” said Kelley. “As we bring new aircraft on the flight line and find out what works or what the challenges are, then we have to work together to ensure that the warfighter has the products they need to do and taking naval aviation to the enemy out there.”

The Naval Aviation Enterprise (NAE) is a cooperative partnership of naval aviation stakeholders focused on sustaining required current readiness and advancing future warfighting capabilities at best possible cost. It is comprised of Sailors, Marines, civilians, and contractors from across service branches and organizations, working together to identify and resolve readiness barriers and warfighting degraders.

For more information, visit http://www.navy.mil, http://www.facebook.com/usnavy, or http://www.twitter.com/usnavy.

For more news from Naval Aviation Enterprise, visit www.navy.mil/ or www.nae.navy.mil.