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Naval Air Training Aligns with Naval Air Forces

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS060323-11
Release Date: 3/23/2006 2:26:00 PM

From Commander, Naval Air Forces Public Affairs

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA), headquartered in Corpus Christi, Texas, began to align under the San Diego-based Commander, Naval Air Forces (CNAF) in March as part of the Naval Aviation Enterprise's (NAE) continuing efforts to create greater efficiency and synchronization while increasing aviation war-fighting readiness.

“CNATRA’s mission is to produce the world’s finest combat aviators and aircrew on time, in the right number and at the right cost,” said Rear Adm. Don Quinn, chief of Naval Air Training. “This alignment will better synchronize Naval Aviator, Naval Flight Officer and Naval Air Crew production with fleet aviation requirements and resource sponsorship.”

According to Capt. Chuck Henry, CNAF assistant force readiness officer, the transition will be transparent to almost everyone, as there are no planned movements of assets, no base closures as a result of this alignment, and no personnel changes.

“This is largely an administrative effort that will place all of CNATRA’s aviation hardware, budget, and cockpit-related training under the overarching leadership of CNAF and our enterprise partnership,” said Henry.

One objective of the re-alignment is to align aviator production with fleet requirements, based on the Fleet Response Plan. CNATRA's aviation metrics will also be aligned with established NAE metrics, which will afford the enterprise greater visibility and overall control of production and readiness costs.

The alignment will also integrate flight training budgets into the overall NAE budgets proposed for fiscal year 2007. This will enable naval aviation to better mitigate shortfalls in one area of the enterprise with savings generated in another.

“With the training squadrons previously aligned under the Naval Education and Training Command (NETC) in Pensacola, Fla., we couldn’t transfer funding from the fleet into the training pipeline when necessary, nor could we capture any savings generated by training commands to support fleet requirements,” said Henry. “This will enable us to better manage all of naval aviation’s requirements.”

“With this alignment, we’ll preserve the established and proven aspects of NETC training, geared towards classroom instruction and curriculum development,” added Quinn. “They’re still vital to the overall process, and this will ensure we deliver training using the newest methods and media available.”

According to Quinn, the alignment transition plan will take approximately nine months to complete. “We anticipate tremendous synergy in the combining of CNAF and CNATRA training assets and NETC’s continued leadership in curriculum support,” said Quinn.