Erosion of aviation readiness through the Inter-Deployment Training Cycle is a major concern for Navy Type Commanders. In response to this concern, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations sponsored an in-depth analysis to identify the physical and functional requirements of training systems that meet operational training needs of post-Fleet Replacement Squadrons in selected aviation communities.

The Navy Aviation Simulation Master Plan (NASMP) Requirements Analysis was conducted to define these training requirements that will guide the design and development of effective and empowering mission simulation solutions for Fleet aviators. The initial NASMP Requirements Analysis identified operations training system requirements for the following Navy aircraft and their aircrew personnel: F/A-18C/E/F, E-2C, EA-6B; SH-60 B/F; MH-60S, EP-3E; P-3C, and E-6B.

This paper describes the technical approach that was used. The approach is comprehensive in scope, aggressive in its implementation, and included all of the training front-end analysis steps required to define Navy aviation mission, system function, aircrew task, training media, training system alternative (including utilization and cost), fidelity, and simulator functional requirements. An important feature of the approach was using the Universal Naval Task ListæNaval Mission Essential Task List Process to identify mission task requirements; and decomposing and linking these tasks to Navy Training and Readiness task lists, and individual, team and collective aircrew task performance requirements.

Lessons learned include the efficacy of mission-based task analysis, reconciling semantic and operational differences in mission terminology and usage, shortcomings in MIL-PRF-29612 mission analysis guidance, reconciling task differences across Navy aircraft communities, the need for validated models to conduct utilization and cost analyses, and the critical need for a comprehensive, accessible, and current training requirements analysis database to host the data, conduct requirements analyses, and report results.