Q: Before we look back on your tour, what are you most excited about for the future of Naval Aviation? What do the current generation of aviators and sailors have to look forward to?

A: As I look at our future air wing, and I look at the challenges we've had recently in terms of balancing current readiness and future readiness, what we've been able to deliver in terms of new type/model/series across the board, with few exceptions, new capabilities that have been delivered or are coming, I'm very excited about what that looks like in the future. I give an incredible amount of credit to the team at N98. Admiral "Nasty" Manazir, then Admiral "Bullet" Miller, the new Air Boss, and now Admiral "Satan" Conn, who has the helm right now, they've done an amazing job in a very pressurized environment, balancing the focus on current readiness with what we need for our future readiness and future capabilities.

This year, we've come a long way in F-35. We stood up our F-35 training squadron (VFA-125) in Lemoore. We'll transition our first fleet squadron, VFA-147, this year, in fiscal year '18. We've sent our E-2D's overseas to Carrier Air Wing 5 in Iwakuni. Air Wing 5 is our most capable air wing across the force, exactly what we need in the forward deployed naval forces. I've watched Growlers participate in Joint Force exercises around the globe, and what they bring to that fight is amazing. Locally here, I've spent a lot of time with our (MH-60) Romeo and Sierra communities, and the teaming of these platforms and what's coming in the future from those communities in terms of ASUW and ASW is very exciting. Away from the carrier environment, we're about three-quarters of the way through the P-3 to P-8 transition. That platform has turned into a very capable ASW platform, everything we expected it to be in terms of managing the entire ASW kill-chain from locating to putting torpedoes on submarines.
As I look to the future for carriers, we've delivered Ford to the fleet, we're putting her through initial trials right now, we'll get her to a maintenance period, and then we'll start integrating an air wing on board, and that will bring additional new capabilities from that new carrier for the future. If I was a young JO right now in any community, I would be pretty excited about the new things they'll be able to employ out on the tip of the spear.

Q. You recently testified before Congress about the readiness challenges we face in the aviation community. It was pretty sobering testimony from all the service aviation chiefs. What does the future of readiness look like?

A. Readiness has been the #1 priority for me and the NAE in this three year tour. I started out in 2015 very focused on current readiness. We have been digging out of a significant readiness sinkhole from the 2010/2011 sequestration and Budget Control Act impacts. That's been a big challenge. Inside that topline budget pressure, we've put money into our flying hour account, but what we forgot to do was to ensure that all the other accounts that support aviation readiness were funded to the right levels. We under-executed that flying hour account for a number of years. And so, over the last three years, we've been talking about the importance of those enablers.

I'm excited where we were in '17, when we got that budget delivered we were able to fill in some of those readiness holes. '18, once we get through the Continuing Resolution, it is a fairly good budget for Naval aviation, and then as I look at the five-year defense plan for '19-'23, those readiness enabler accounts are all funded at either the OPNAV-assessed requirement, or the max executable. That's the first time in almost a decade those accounts have been that healthy. That's a very positive story. In VFA and VAW in particular, we've been struggling from a readiness perspective, and the needles aren't moving nearly as fast as I would like, nor the Commodores or CAGs. But I think where we sit fiscally this fiscal year, and in the future budgets, we're at a turning point for readiness in naval aviation, and that's a great story.

Q: Last year, it was a tough year with the physiological episodes (PE's). The Navy took that issue head-on. Where do we stand in 2018 with PE's, particularly in the F/A-18 and T-45 aircraft?

A: Physiological episodes remain our number one safety priority across the Naval Aviation Enterprise. We stood up a Physiological Episode Action Team (PEAT) that Rear Admiral Sara "Clutch" Joyner leads. She and her team-a very broad team of industry, medical folks, NASA, our sister services-have done a great job across T-45's and the Hornet / Super Hornet fleets. In T-45's, we are in a very good spot with some modifications to the airplane, based on things we learned. Primarily we introduced a new oxygen monitor and a component that takes moisture out of the system. Of the T-45's, we've modified over three quarters of that force, almost 150 airplanes out of a force of about 190 are fully modified. We've flown about 20,000 hours in those modified airplanes and we've had five PE's, and of those a couple can be attributed to things not involving the aircraft. That's about one PE every 4,000 hours, which is very good based on historical trends. So with the T-45's, we've learned a lot and are in a good spot there.

In the fleet, there's good news across the across the the Legacy Hornet, Super Hornet and Growler fleets, as the breathing or oxygen/OBOGS events are all trending down. Where we remain focused is on the pressurization side, particularly in legacy Hornets. We've done some great work with Boeing to identify some of the components that we think interact very closely to drive the environmental control system, the cockpit pressurization system. So we're moving forward with modifications on some jets, we're looking at some deeper modifications that have to continue. We are continuing a very aggressive data collection effort under Clutch's leadership at the PEAT, with Boeing and lots of other outside agencies to really get into the data analysis... what we are collecting, what's it telling us, and then what does that mean in terms of modifications moving forward. There's a couple of other things that are coming as well for the fleet aircraft. Boeing is very much involved. The root cause corrective analysis is ongoing and it's very in-depth, very thorough. We haven't solved it for the Super Hornet fleet yet, but I'm very much encouraged by the data we're collecting and the path that we're on.

Q. The Air Force has recently changed policies in an attempt to add to their pilot numbers, as they're having a pilot shortage. Does the Navy have pilot retention issues, and if so, what are we doing going forward to retain the best and brightest of our aviators?

A. First off, I'll say, we do NOT have a pilot shortage. That said, there are some retention trends that are clearly in the wrong direction. We're watching them very closely, in particular in VFA and VAQ, our strike fighters and our Growler communities. The trends we watch are those officers that decide to stay on beyond their minimum service requirements and essentially sign up for a Department Head bonus that takes them through a department head tour. We are also watching post-command Commanders at the 20-year point, and again, those trends are in the wrong direction.
There are a couple of things we're working on. From an incentives perspective, based on fleet feedback, PERS-43 has come up with a way to tailor and adjust our Aviation Bonuses for Department Heads and Commanders, our O-5 Commanders, as well as our monthly Aviation Incentive Pay, to take advantage of new caps that Congress has approved, and to target those toward upwardly mobile aviators that are hitting all their milestones. If you're screening for the next milestone, you remain eligible for those expanded payments. We've built in some flexibility and options into the Department Head bonus, same thing for the O-5 Commander bonus. It's got PERS-4 support, CNP is onboard. I think we're in a good spot if we can find the money to put all of these new incentives in place. It's as an efficient and effective way to use incentive money, and it's based on fleet feedback. The young JO's out there that have said, 'Hey, I'd like a few more options, I want to take advantage of the full amounts, where it applies.' We have to balance it with retention in different communities, and we'll do that. But I think it puts us in a much better place from an incentives perspective as we try to retain talent.

The other place that we've got to work, and it's probably the biggest (retention) detractor, when we take the surveys of those that are leaving, is flying hours and readiness. I own that one. The readiness across the force is trending upwards, which is a good news story. But there are still challenges, young JO's join the Navy to fly. They want to be good at their trade. They want the hours to be proficient, and to be able to employ their platforms effectively. We've been short on aircraft and hours in some cases, particularly in maintenance phase. Obviously, as you start working out and get to do workups and deployment, you'll get to do that flying. But the time between those workups and deployments has been a little bit frustrating. I own the readiness piece, PERS-4 and the manpower world have done a nice job putting together a tailored incentive package. Between those two, I think we'll start to reverse those trends.

Q. So the more up aircraft, the more hours, you're more content in your job?

A. Well, as the Lemoore Commodore said, 'All good things come from up jets,' and that's right. Your maintainers are happier, they're not having to do as much in terms of working on airplanes, cannibalizing parts, and then aviators are obviously happier if they're doing what they joined to do.

Q. You mentioned the next generation, the next carrier air wing, and some of these other technologies, F-35, Growler, P-8, Advanced Hawkeye, and now unmanned aircraft coming to the aircraft carriers. But we see other powers also boosting their naval air forces and their capabilities. What do these technologies mean to the U.S. Navy in the event that we had a high-end fight?

A. I'm very excited about what we've been able to deliver. As we balance the tension between current and future readiness, we have got to continue to deliver new capabilities, deliver new platforms, as well as modernize the existing force that we have. That's an absolute must if we're going to continue to pace the threat. I think we are doing that. We have unmanned, we've got it in the rotary world now, and we just delivered our first Triton air vehicles that will team with our P-8's at Point Mugu, and they'll deploy in the Pacific this year, in 2018. Where we still don't have our unmanned fully integrated yet is on the carriers, and that's coming with the MQ-25. We just need to get that delivered, and start operating. It will do some very good things for the carrier in terms of the ability to do mission tanking and extend the reach of the air wing, and also help the strike group commander understand the maritime environment around his/her forces.

With Growlers and F-35's, two incredible new capabilities, and we've seen a lot of interaction already with our junior officers who take platforms up to NAWDC in Fallon to fly, and to integrate, innovate and learn. That's one of the most valuable things about our young JO's, is you just give them the new technology, and tell them to go out and figure it out, and they will do that. They have been able to optimize the way we employ those platforms together and build some initial tactics, techniques and procedures. So I'm very excited about what they're doing, and the progress that they're making.

What I will say though, is that we quickly realized that as we're flying these airplanes, in the way we designed them, Growlers, to influence the electromagnetic spectrum, and F-35's, to operate far separated from each other because of the way they share information is that we've outgrowing the ranges we have. So what it's driving us to do is push a lot of our training into the Virtual and Constructive world. It is a good news story and it's moving forward very quickly. In Fallon, we have an Air Defense Strike Group Facility that's been in place now for almost two years. We've got the ability to integrate strike fighters with E-2D's and Aegis surface ships. In 2020, we'll deliver an integrated training facility where we'll expand that capacity more than threefold. That will allow us to practice those high-end tactics, the capabilities we're delivering to the fleet, in the simulators. In some cases, you won't be able to do those on the ranges, because it's too limited. But it will also allow us, with those reps and sets under our belt, to be more effective and efficient as we execute precious flight hour dollars. I'm very excited with what N98, our resource sponsor, has been able to deliver. The path forward is good. I'm excited about how the JO's are helping us learn, and what we're doing in terms of the Virtual and Constructive to really take advantage of these capabilities, and understand them very well before we jump in the airplanes.

Q. Also on your watch, a new class of aircraft carrier was delivered to the Navy. In addition to Gerald Ford, you'll have Kennedy, Enterprise, etc. How does that change the game for naval aviation?

A. It is a new class. Ford brings a lot of capabilities that Nimitz did not have. The most important piece that it brings, it's a large deck carrier. It allows us the ability to take that future air wing, take that full integrated capability to sea, operate where we need to operate, all the way up to 12 nautical miles off the coast of any nation around the world, and integrate that into the carrier strike group. We delivered Ford to the fleet, this year we're wringing it out right now during independent steaming exercises, we'll put it in for a maintenance period, and then we'll integrate an air wing onboard, probably in mid-2019. That's where we'll really start to understand how all those new capabilities deliver, from the catapults and arresting gear, the new elevators onboard that change the way we do ordnance, arm, re-arm, and turn airplanes around to generate sorties. And I also think what the Ford class brings from a quality of life perspective is very good as well. It was designed well. We have some things we've learned and we'll make a few modifications, but those Sailors who deploy for the first time aboard Ford are going to like what they get.

Q. In the last major conflict between world powers, it was naval aviation, specifically the aircraft carrier, which turned the tide of the war. Is the aircraft carrier, though, still relevant? And with the aforementioned new technologies, how prepared is the U.S. to deal with threats from peer or near-peer nations?

A. I think we're still very relevant in that high-end fight. Admiral Swift says it all the time. If you're not maneuverable, you're not relevant. And even though we tend to draw an arc off a potential adversary's coastline and say, you can't go inside this arc, because of ballistic missiles. We practice and train our air wings and our carrier strike groups to do exactly that. And so I think we will be relevant, we'll be able to operate in those environments, because of the integrated capabilities we bring with the air wing and the carrier, all of the surface ships that operate with us, and our submarine force. I don't think we're going to draw an imaginary line, and say our forces are not going inside it. We have the capabilities and the training, and we practice the skillsets we need as a strike group. And I think we'll be very effective.

Q. For more than three decades you've been flying off aircraft carriers, you've traveled around the enterprise and talked to maintainers, pilots, engineers, you've done it all. Today in 2018, compared to when you came in, what do you think of the sailors and aviators that make up Naval aviation?

A. In the visits I have made around the fleet in my three years here, I continue to be incredibly impressed by our people. They're the key to everything we do, and retaining quality folks is key. We've done a pretty good job of that. I talk to young maintainers on the flightline, in Lemoore for example, and it's inspiring to see what they're doing to recover readiness, the creativity, how they've worked amongst different squadrons to learn from each other and to think out of the box in terms of ways to improve readiness and the quality of maintenance and the training that they get. The way they work together is incredible. I was at the Fleet Readiness Center in Lemoore, and I saw one of the young mechanics in there, manufacturing parts. He showed me the blueprints he got from industry, and he's making parts that are not in the stock system anywhere. Not just legacy Hornets, these are Super Hornets as well. He was excited to show me how he can use this machine and turn out parts, in some cases ones that don't exist. That kind of innovation is really exciting and we see it all the time. I spend a lot of time at our Boots on the Ground events talking to young Sailors and Marines. And you can't not walk away from those events completely impressed with their creativity, innovation, drive and work ethic. I'm very excited about where our young maintainers are across the force, and they grow into our seasoned chiefs and master chiefs who we must have to run Naval aviation.

I look at the junior officers, and I hear the stories from the strike group commanders about what they're doing on deployment. I look back to what we were doing on my first deployment. Although we weren't flying in combat, or flying over places like Iraq and Syria, I do know that what they have to do on those missions, in terms of balancing the rules of engagement, ensuring they have positive ID on the targets they're supposed to hit, and then understanding what their weapons are going to do and estimating any potential collateral damage, and working with folks on the ground who may not be speaking great English, and I watch how they pull all of that together-Lieutenants flying together over Iraq and Syria-and they continue to execute flawlessly.

When I was a strike group commander, during OIF in Afghanistan, I'd sit through the debriefs and I'd listen to the JO's walk through their thinking on missions, of how they'd do everything they could short of dropping a bomb-until it was their last resort-to meet the ground commander's intent. I could not be more proud. I think it's a testament to our training system, the way we train starting at CNATRA through our FRS's to fleet training, and really to the standardization that we have across the force. We have our air combat training continuum, which allows us in every community to track a junior officer's progress, through different qualifications, all the way up to where he or she is now instructing other junior officers. If you see a guy or gal who is a Level 3 or Level 4 qualified in a certain community or platform, you know exactly what that means. I think that's been one of the greatest strengths for Naval Aviation. We've gone through the Comprehensive Review and the Strategic Review, I look at some of the lessons learned there, and I keep falling back on Naval aviation's standardization and that air combat training continuum. Those are programs that we must continue to embrace and execute across the force.

Q. Have you had any time to reflect on your tour as Air Boss? Any final thoughts?

A. It has been my distinct honor and privilege, and probably the highlight of my career to spend the last three years of it as the Navy's Air Boss. As my wife Peg and I work with our leadership team-our commanders and our spouses-we cannot help but be impressed with the quality of those folks. They are really amazing as I watch what they do, the things that they deal with, the things that they manage every day. As I watch them around the world, I couldn't be more proud with the way they're operating from our carriers and expeditionary airfields. As I leave the job-although we've had to work through a few challenges with readiness and with PE's-I leave the job very confident in what I turn over to Admiral Miller in terms of the future and the people he's got working with him.

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