Ensuring that aircraft survivability equipment (ASE) operates and functions as designed in a wartime situation is literally a matter of life and death for the pilots and crew operating combat aircraft. To ensure the operational readiness of this equipment, the ASE Readiness Team (ART) was created to conduct assessments of ASE systems on U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) aircraft. The team also provides on-the-job training (OJT) and classroom instruction to maintainers and users of these systems, ensuring the aircraft and aircrew can depend on these critical systems to properly function in combat. Almost all Navy and Marine Corps fixed-wing and rotary-wing platforms that have ASE on board fall under the ART umbrella.
Origin, Mission, and Responsibilities
The ART initiative started as a result of sober lessons learned during Operation Iraqi Freedom. On 7 February 2007, a CH-46E (call-sign Morphine 1-2) from the USMC’s HMM-364 Purple Foxes was tragically downed by hostile fire while operating in Anbar Province, Iraq, during a casualty evacuation (casevac) mission. Five Marines and two Navy corpsmen were lost. In response to this tragedy, the ART was stood up to ensure that advanced ASE systems function as intended to protect aircrews and aircraft, as well as to ensure that maintainers and crew are properly trained in maintaining and using these highly complex systems.
The Advanced Tactical Aircraft Protection Systems Program Office (PMA-272), which falls under the Program Executive Office for Tactical Aircraft Programs (PEO[T]), is the designated lead program office for the management, development, demonstration, and acquisition of ASE. The COMNAVFORINST 4790.2E Naval Aviation Maintenance Program (NAMP) publication delegates the responsibility of maintaining the ART to PMA-272 and is thus responsible for sending ART personnel worldwide.
Many of the earliest ART visits were conducted out of urgency with squadrons in theater during a deployment, but these checks gradually moved to being predeployment checks at a squadron’s home station. Historically, ASE assessments by the ART were only required for predeploying squadrons once these visits stopped being conducted in theater, but per the NAMP revision 4790.2D (published in February 2021), assessments and training are now conducted annually for all Navy and Marine Corps squadrons regardless of deployment status.
Members of the ART include engineers, logisticians, equipment specialists, and subject-matter experts (SMEs) from PMA-272, the F/A-18 and EA-18G Program Office (PMA-265), the Naval Air Technical Data and Engineering Service Center (NATEC), the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) Electronic Warfare Support Equipment (EWSE) group, and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) contractors. Also included, particularly on larger visits with multiple squadrons in attendance (such as Marine Aircraft Groups [MAGs] or Carrier Air Wings [CVWs]), are U.S. Navy Reserve officers from the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Reserve Program (NRP) to serve as the team’s on-site Officer-In-Charge (OIC) and function as a liaison between the squadron personnel and civilian ART members. These officers manage the day-to-day tasks over the course of the visit to ensure everything progresses smoothly. Additionally, the PMA-272 ART Lead position, which manages all aspects of the ART, is a full-time reserve billet manned by an activated reservist.
During each visit, the ART screens the aircraft discrepancy books (ADBs) for ASE-related discrepancies, assesses the ASE systems on available aircraft, provides OJT to maintenance personnel and classroom instruction as requested, inspects the relevant support and test equipment, and screens technical manuals for accuracy and incorporation of all applicable updates. Upon completion of system assessments, the ART then assists maintainers in troubleshooting complex discrepancies—both pre-existing discrepancies and those identified during the course of the ART visit—and ensures work orders are properly entered into the workload system and closed out when the issue has been fixed and the system verified as working properly.
The ART also conducts an out-brief with squadron/CVW/MAG maintenance leadership to review preliminary results, recommendations, and lessons learned. A formal report is then provided by the ART Lead shortly after visit completion. Common findings and issues often seen during ART visits are related to maintainer ASE/electronic warfare (EW) proficiency, incorrect software loads, inoperable or degraded system components and support equipment, and outdated technical libraries.
Recent Activities
During a November 2024 ART visit to Naval Air Station (NAS) Fallon, NV, with Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 17, the team—with LCDR Wesley Monillas of the NAVAIR Headquarters Unit of the NRP serving as team OIC—conducted ASE assessments on 50 aircraft (shown in Figure 1). These included aircraft from four F/A-18E/F strike fighter squadrons, one E/A-18G electronic attack squadron, one MH-60S helicopter sea combat squadron, and one MH-60R helicopter maritime strike squadron, with the CVW attached to the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz based at Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, WA. Additionally, technical representatives from the NAWCWD EWSE group joined the effort and led inspections on some of the advanced ASE test hardware and associated components at each of the strike fighter squadrons.
The ASE systems that were evaluated during the NAS Fallon visit include the AN/APR-39 Digital Radar Warning Receiver, AN/ALE-47 Airborne Countermeasures Dispenser System, AN/AAR-47 Missile Approach Warning System, AN/ALR-67 Radar Warning Receiver, and AN/ALQ-214 Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures Onboard Jammer.
The squadron maintainers provided support to the team by ensuring power was made available to the aircraft, ensuring test equipment was ready and available, and assisting with the inspections. At the conclusion of the visit, LCDR Monillas provided a final out-brief to CVW-17 leadership, with the formal report being sent by the current ART Lead, LT Philip Tanner, shortly afterwards to detail the results and provide guidance for follow-on remediation of the discrepancies identified.
Prior to the team’s arrival at NAS Fallon, the team engaged with CVW-17 Maintenance Officer (CAGMO) LCDR Larry Britten and Maintenance Master Chief Petty Officer AFCM Albert Ottoway to plan out aircraft, personnel, and equipment availability. Largely due to their leadership and support, the team was able to test the ASE systems on as many as 15 aircraft in a single day, allowing much of the second week to be devoted to troubleshooting, training, and correcting existing and recently identified discrepancies. System pass rates were generally on par with what has been observed by the team during prior visits with other CVWs.
By the end of the visit, nearly one in five of all discrepancies—either identified while inspecting ADBs at the beginning of the visit or from the system checks during the visit—were successfully closed out while the team was on site. The remaining discrepancies were pending action with suggested troubleshooting guidance provided by the team.
Measuring the Impact
In terms of impact and effectiveness, data from the beginning of ART efforts have shown a 17% overall improvement in system readiness from the team’s initial check to the conclusion of an ART visit, taking into account the issue identification and troubleshooting the team performs during a visit. In addition, since FY20, there has been a 25% overall increase in the average system readiness the team has seen at its initial assessment. Although this increase cannot be explicitly attributed to any one cause, the training and exposure the ART has provided has certainly helped increase maintainer understanding of these systems and proper maintenance procedures.
In FY24 alone, nearly 600 aircraft were assessed at 19 different Navy and Marine Corps bases worldwide. Additionally, more than 500 maintainers were provided in-depth OJT and classroom training by the team, and more than 80 individuals attended at least one ART visit during the year, with many of them attending multiple visits. Simply put, the ART program could not succeed without the dedication and hard work of these professionals, who often work long hours around rigorous aircraft flight and maintenance schedules and in highly challenging environments.
In total, the ART has led assessments on more than 4,200 aircraft and more than 11,000 individual ASE systems over the past 14 years of activity; and it is anticipated that demand for the ART and its support will continue to grow stronger going forward as ongoing world events bring renewed attention to ASE systems and the ever-increasing focus on ensuring that our aircrews and aircraft are always ready and protected.
About the Author
LT Philip Tanner is a reserve officer in the NAVAIR Reserve Program and has served as the ASE Readiness Team Lead for the Advanced Tactical Aircraft Protection Systems Program Office (PMA-272) since 2021. In his civilian work (on military furlough), he also serves as an aerospace engineer for the Army Special Operations Aviation Command, and he previously worked for the Army Futures Command, Technology Development Directorate, at NASA Langley Research Center. LT Tanner holds a B.S. and M.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Virginia and the Georgia Institute of Technology, respectively.
