NATOPS interim changes, explained

A NATOPS interim change, often written IC, is the fastest way a correction reaches a naval aircraft's flight manual. The Naval Air Training and Operating Procedures Standardization (NATOPS) program defines it in CNAF M-3710.7, the NATOPS General Flight and Operating Instructions Manual dated February 7, 2025, as an update initiated by an urgent or priority change recommendation and issued by rapid means, normally a naval message with replacement pages. Chapters 1 and 2 of that manual lay out the whole process: who may recommend a change, how recommendations are sorted into urgent, priority, and routine, who reviews and who releases, how an IC is numbered and recorded, and how the slower NATOPS Review absorbs everything the IC process does not. This page follows that process from recommendation to replacement page. For the program the process belongs to, see what NATOPS is.

Interim change, change, and revision

Paragraph 2.3.4 of CNAF M-3710.7 says a NATOPS product is updated by one of three means.

The three are not interchangeable. An interim change is for content that cannot wait. A change is for a block of revised pages, usually following a Technical Directive. A revision resets the publication, and the IC count does not reset with it: paragraph 2.3.4 says interim changes are numbered consecutively "regardless of the number of subsequent changes or revisions." An interim change can be cancelled or modified by a NATOPS Review report or by a later interim change, and a note explains that a correction to an IC gets a new IC number so the new information is visible in the NATOPS Status Report.

The same vocabulary appears in the maintenance world with a different owner. COMNAVAIRFORINST 4790.2E, the Naval Aviation Maintenance Program dated 28 October 2024, delegates release of changes and interim changes to that instruction to CNAF N422 and release of full revisions to CNAF N00. A reader who sees "interim change" should ask which publication it belongs to before assuming the NATOPS process applies.

Urgent, priority, and routine

Paragraph 2.5.1 sorts every change recommendation (CR) into two families, routine or interim, and splits interim recommendations into urgent and priority by the consequence of their content. Paragraphs 2.5.3 and 2.5.4 define the three categories and their timelines.

Routine recommendations must be further classified at submission as technical, administrative, or operational. A technical CR affects systems, limits, or values, is confirmed by engineers, and needs no fleet review; the manual's example is changing a maximum oil temperature from 180 to 200 degrees. An administrative CR fixes obvious errors such as typos and numbering. An operational CR changes procedures and requires NATOPS Program Manager review before the ACO accepts it.

The manual is candid about the cost of the routine path: a routine change recommendation "could take several years to be resolved." A note gives the escape valve: the NATOPS Model Manager may upgrade a routine recommendation to urgent or priority and forward it for immediate action. The 3-day and 30-day goals are not new. The May 5, 2016 edition of CNAF M-3710.7, hosted by Headquarters Marine Corps Aviation, carries the same turnaround goals and the same 2-to-3-year Review interval.

Who may recommend and who may issue

Anyone may start the process. Paragraph 1.1.2 says recommended changes to CNAF M-3710.7 and to any other NATOPS publication may be submitted by anyone, and paragraph 2.5 turns the permission into a duty: any NATOPS product user who notes a deficiency or an error is obligated to submit a change recommendation.

Issuing is narrow. Paragraph 2.3.4.1 says the NATOPS Products Administrator shall issue all interim changes, and paragraph 2.2.1 identifies that administrator as the NAVAIR Airworthiness and CYBERSAFE Office (ACO), acting for Commander, Naval Air Systems Command (COMNAVAIRSYSCOM). Paragraph 2.2.2 lists "release authority for NATOPS interim changes" among the ACO's duties, alongside monitoring the progress of urgent, priority, and routine recommendations and coordinating the development of interim changes, changes, and revisions. When an interim change contains both technical information and operating procedures, COMNAVAIRSYSCOM provides the technical information and any recommended procedures to the NATOPS Model Manager and the cognizant coordinator, who may then propose modifications to the procedures within the technical constraints.

Two exceptions are written in. Under paragraph 2.5.4.1, COMNAVAIRSYSCOM has cognizance over all aircraft equipment limitations, flight envelopes, and technical data, and may issue a recommendation that involves only technical information directly as an interim change, provided no operating procedures are involved. And under paragraphs 2.5.4.2 and 2.5.5, interim changes to CNAF M-3710.7 itself are issued by Commander, Naval Air Forces, which acts as both cognizant command and releasing authority for the general manual; COMNAVAIRSYSCOM may not issue changes to CNAF M-3710.7.

The approval path step by step

Paragraph 2.5.4.1 and Figure 2-3 set out the approval process for urgent and priority recommendations to NATOPS publications in five steps.

1. Initial change recommendation. The originator submits the recommendation through AIRS with an initial category of urgent or priority. A safety-of-flight item says so in the subject line and the justification. If the Airworthiness website is unreachable, the recommendation goes to the NATOPS Program Manager in the message format of Figure 2-4, with COMNAVAIRFOR (N455) and the ACO as information addressees, and the Program Manager enters it into AIRS later.
2. Initial NATOPS Program Manager approval. AIRS emails the Program Manager, who reviews the recommendation for appropriateness and completeness and may recommend cancellation, downgrade it to routine, or upgrade it to urgent. The Program Manager's initial approval only lets the recommendation proceed into review; it is not concurrence for release. The review must be completed within 24 hours for an urgent recommendation and within 3 days for a priority one.
3. Change recommendation review. The ACO builds a review package, with draft replacement pages if needed, and sends it to the NATOPS Advisory Group members and technical reviewers. Members who do not exercise operational control of the aircraft need not respond. When emergency egress, rescue, or survival is affected, the Naval Survival Training Institute joins the review.
4. Cognizant Command's request for release. The Cognizant (COG) Command reviews the comments and either cancels or downgrades the recommendation or asks the ACO to issue it.
5. ACO release. The ACO assembles the final package, including the original recommendation and the Advisory Group comments; the Model Manager Unit reviews it for accuracy; and on the unit's concurrence the ACO issues the interim change.

Paragraph 2.5.5 governs what goes out. If replacement pages are part of the package, the interim change message is the notification and the pages are downloaded from the Airworthiness or NATEC websites or received from the point of contact named in the message. If there are no replacement pages, the message must be complete in itself so that no user has to look elsewhere for the approved text. Advisory Group members readdress the message to their subordinate commands.

Numbering, the summary page, and the record of changes

Three devices keep an IC traceable. First, the number: consecutive for the life of the publication, with a fresh number for any correction to an earlier IC. The sample interim change message in Figure 2-5 reads "this message issues interim change (IC) number XX" to the publication, cites the AIRS number as a reference, and lists the flight manuals and checklists whose pages are affected.

Second, the interim change summary page. Paragraph 2.3.4.3 says interim changes are entered as replacement pages and recorded on the interim change summary page at the front of the manual, and that a replacement page package normally includes an updated summary page. A note tells the holder to check that page against the NATOPS Status Report to confirm the manual contains the latest update. Replacement pages that incorporate an IC keep their printed change marking and add the IC number beside it, in the manual's examples "CHANGE 2 with IC 3" or "ORIGINAL with ICs 26 and 29." Paragraph 1.1.3 adds the change symbol: a black vertical line in the margin next to revised text.

Third, the record of changes in the publication itself. The front matter of the February 2025 CNAF M-3710.7 lists prior revisions and updates by date, and the update entries name the paragraphs and figures affected and an AIRS number, for example an entry dated 15 January 2023 that cites AIRS NATOPS-2023-005 and one dated 1 August 2020 that cites AIRS 2020-272. The entries from 2017 and 2018 also give the message date-time group. A reader can therefore walk from a page marking to an IC number to an AIRS record to a dated message.

The Airworthiness website, AIRS, and the Status Report

Paragraph 2.3.1 describes the administrative tools. The Airworthiness website, at airworthiness.navair.navy.mil, is the primary information conduit for all participants in the NATOPS program and hosts the NATOPS products, interim changes, the Program Manager's Handbook, AIRS, OPNAVINST 3710.7, the NATOPS Status Report, and the Review schedule. The NATOPS Status Report, prepared by the ACO, lists the status of every NATOPS publication and the Cognizant Command, Model Manager, and Program Manager assignments.

The Airworthiness Issue Resolution System (AIRS) is the change recommendation and tracking system on that site. Paragraph 2.5.2 says all NATOPS change recommendations should be submitted through AIRS, which acknowledges receipt by email, requires current point-of-contact information so the submitter can answer questions, and gives the fleet user insight into the progress of the recommendation through approval and release. Urgent and priority recommendations enter the interim change process on submittal; routine ones are collected for the next Review. AIRS takes the same information previously entered on the OPNAV 3710/6 NATOPS/Tactical Change Recommendation form, and paragraph 2.5.2 says a naval message or the OPNAV 3710/6 form is acceptable when web connectivity is unavailable. Transmission of urgent and priority recommendation messages is authorized during MINIMIZE.

Release has its own clock. The Figure 2-5 message template says the IC message will be posted on the Airworthiness website within 48 hours of release, in the NATOPS library sorted by aircraft and in AIRS by AIRS number, and on the NATEC website, where replacement pages are placed within the manual. Paragraph 1.1.5.2 says active interim change messages are normally posted within five days of release. The 2009 predecessor, OPNAVINST 3710.7U, already routed change recommendations through AIRS and described the Airworthiness website as the conduit for NATOPS interim changes, which shows how long the web process has been in place.

The Model Manager and the NATOPS Review

The interim change process handles what cannot wait. Everything else is handled by the NATOPS Review, which paragraph 2.6 calls the primary means of keeping manuals current. A NATOPS product should be formally reviewed every 2 years, and in no case shall a publication exceed 5 years between formal reviews. Reviews may be in person, virtual, or a set of rolling electronic updates, provided the Model Manager Unit, the NAVAIR Class Desk, and the ACO agree the publication has been thoroughly reviewed with sufficient fleet input.

The NATOPS Model Manager, defined in paragraph 2.2.1 as the unit commander or department head designated by the Cognizant Command for a specific aircraft model, is responsible for the currency of the assigned publications and hosts the Review. The NATOPS Program Manager inside the Model Manager Unit does most of the work: reviewing pending AIRS recommendations within the time allowed for their priority, building the agenda, and chairing the Review. Under paragraph 2.6.3 the convening announcement must precede the Review by at least 60 days and go to every major aviation command employing the aircraft, COMNAVAIRFOR, COMNAVAIRSYSCOM, the Naval Safety Command, the Naval Survival Training Institute, NATEC, and the contract management office at the manufacturer. Under paragraph 2.6.4, change recommendations for the agenda must reach the Model Manager Unit no later than 30 days before the Review, and the ACO posts the agenda about a week ahead.

Paragraph 2.6.5 sets the room. Minimum attendance is the ACO, the Cognizant Command representative, any Advisory Group member with operational control of the aircraft, the NAVAIR Assistant Program Manager for Systems Engineering, the Naval Safety Command, and all evaluation units for the aircraft. Voting is limited to direct representatives of Advisory Group members, the systems engineering representative, the Model Manager Unit, and in some cases evaluation units, one vote per command. The results are recorded in the NATOPS Review Report, prepared by the ACO under paragraph 2.6.6; a Model Manager who disagrees with a disposition may object in the report letter but must submit a new change recommendation within 30 days or the objection is withdrawn.

Two rules link the Review back to the IC. Paragraph 2.6.7 says agenda items approved at a Review are approved for fleet-wide use but are not mandatory until issued by a NATOPS Update message. And paragraph 2.6.6 says a Review Addendum that adds technical content during the post-review revision period must be approved by the necessary Advisory Group members "similar to an interim change," and that content critical enough to be added after the copy freeze date can be accommodated using the interim change process. Paragraph 2.4.2 closes the loop: the approved Review items and any interim changes not yet incorporated are folded by the editors into a change or a revision, and the ACO signs a Letter of Promulgation for the updated product.

Where the process touches NATIP and flight clearances

NATOPS is not the only permanent flight clearance product with an interim process. NAVAIRINST 13034.1D, the NAVAIR flight clearance policy dated March 15, 2010, says an Interim Flight Clearance is valid until its expiration or until promulgation of a change to either the NATOPS or the Naval Aviation Technical Information Product (NATIP). For legacy tactical manuals it describes a TACMAN IC, initiated by a flight clearance request and issued by naval message with replacement pages made available electronically, and says approved NATIP is changed by a NATIP Update issued by message. CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 7.1.1 makes the same point from the operator's side: operating outside the limits or procedures of a promulgated NATOPS or NATIP requires a modified flight clearance, which may take the form of a NATOPS or NATIP change or an Interim Flight Clearance.

A change that started in a cockpit

The Naval Safety Center's report on the fiscal year 2019 Grampaw Pettibone awards, posted May 15, 2020, shows the process from the originating end. An E-2D Hawkeye crew experienced over-pressurization in May 2019, and the story says the incident, the resulting reports, and the award-winning article led to a new NATOPS procedure to identify and respond to over-pressurization more quickly. The story does not say whether the procedure arrived as an interim change or at a Review, but the path from a hazard noted in flight to a procedure in every crew's manual is the one chapter 2 describes.

What to check

• Is the update an interim change, a change, or a revision? Only an IC carries its own consecutive number; a change shows a change number on each changed page; a revision shows only a new title-page date.
• Does the interim change summary page of the manual in hand match the NATOPS Status Report on the Airworthiness website?
• Was the recommendation categorized urgent, priority, or routine, and does the elapsed time fit the 3-day, 30-day, or next-Review path?
• Who released the IC: the ACO for a NATOPS publication, COMNAVAIRFOR for CNAF M-3710.7, or CNAF N422 for the NAMP?
• Has a Review-approved item been issued by a NATOPS Update message, or is it still optional at the Model Manager Unit's discretion under paragraph 2.6.7?
• Does a procedure attributed to NATOPS name the publication, the IC number, and the AIRS record that added it?

Azcuna's ELLMENT, the E-2D Large Language Model Entity, was proposed to NAVAIR PMA-231 under Navy SBIR Phase I topic DON26BZ01-NV010. The prototype, built at private expense on publicly available doctrine, answers with a page-level citation and refuses when the documents do not support an answer. The proposal has been submitted.

Questions people ask

What is a NATOPS interim change?

CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 2.3.4 defines an interim change as an update to a publication, initiated by an urgent or priority change recommendation and issued by rapid means, normally a naval message with accompanying replacement pages. Interim changes are numbered consecutively throughout the life of the NATOPS publication, regardless of later changes or revisions. An interim change can be cancelled or modified by a NATOPS Review report or by another interim change that carries a new number.

What is the difference between a NATOPS interim change, a change, and a revision?

Under CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 2.3.4, an interim change is issued by message for urgent or priority items and carries its own consecutive IC number. A change is limited to the pages containing revised information, is typically the result of a Technical Directive, and shows a change number on a new title page and on every changed page. A revision is a complete new edition that supersedes the old one, incorporates all previous interim changes and changes, and is indicated only by a new date on the title page.

What is an urgent NATOPS change?

CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 2.5.4 says urgent change recommendations are changes that immediately affect safety of flight. One shall be generated whenever a hazard has been classified as high risk for personal injury, property damage, or mission degradation, or when the situation involves the fundamental airworthiness of the aircraft. The subject line must include the phrase safety of flight. The turnaround goal from receipt of the recommendation to release as an interim change is 3 days.

What is a priority NATOPS change recommendation?

CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 2.5.4 defines priority change recommendations as changes that cannot wait until after the next NATOPS Review. One shall be generated whenever a hazard has been identified that must be addressed in the short term but does not immediately affect safety of flight. The turnaround goal for release as an interim change is 30 days from receipt. Large-scale recommendations that cannot be developed and reviewed in 30 days get a turnaround time coordinated with the NATOPS Products Administrator.

What happens to a routine NATOPS change recommendation?

CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 2.5.3 says routine change recommendations do not require immediate issuance to the fleet. They are submitted through AIRS and held in the database until the next NATOPS Review for that publication, and if approved they reach users through a change or revision. Because Reviews are typically held every 2 to 3 years, a routine recommendation could take several years to resolve. The NATOPS Model Manager may upgrade a routine recommendation to urgent or priority for immediate action.

Who can issue a NATOPS interim change?

CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 2.3.4.1 says the NATOPS Products Administrator shall issue all interim changes, and paragraph 2.2.1 assigns that role to the NAVAIR Airworthiness and CYBERSAFE Office (ACO). Paragraph 2.5.4.1 allows COMNAVAIRSYSCOM to issue a change involving only technical information directly as an interim change when no operating procedures are involved. Interim changes to CNAF M-3710.7 itself are issued by Commander, Naval Air Forces under paragraph 2.5.5. Anyone may submit the recommendation that starts the process.

What is AIRS in NATOPS?

AIRS is the Airworthiness Issue Resolution System. CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 2.3.1 describes it as a web-based, interactive NATOPS change recommendation and tracking system on the Airworthiness website. All NATOPS change recommendations should be submitted through AIRS, which acknowledges receipt by email, notifies the NATOPS Program Manager, and shows the submitter the progress of the recommendation. AIRS takes the same information previously entered on the OPNAV 3710/6 NATOPS/Tactical Change Recommendation form; when web connectivity is unavailable, a naval message or the OPNAV 3710/6 form is acceptable.

How are NATOPS interim changes numbered and recorded?

CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 2.3.4 says interim changes are numbered consecutively for the life of the publication, and a correction to an interim change gets a new number so it is visible in the NATOPS Status Report. Paragraph 2.3.4.3 says replacement pages are inserted on receipt and recorded on the interim change summary page at the front of the manual. A modified page keeps its printed change marking and adds the interim change number beside it, for example CHANGE 2 with IC 3.

What is a NATOPS review conference?

CNAF M-3710.7 calls it the NATOPS Review, and paragraph 2.4.2 says a Review is convened to formally disposition the accumulated routine change recommendations. A product should be reviewed every 2 years and never go more than 5 years between reviews; a Review may be in person, virtual, or a rolling electronic update. The Model Manager Unit schedules and convenes it, announces it at least 60 days ahead, and closes the agenda 30 days before. The approved items are recorded in a NATOPS Review Report prepared by the ACO.

Sources

1. 1CNAF M-3710.7, NATOPS General Flight and Operating Instructions Manual (February 7, 2025) · Commander, Naval Air Forces, hosted by Navy Medicine (Naval Aerospace Medical Institute)
2. 2CNAF M-3710.7, NATOPS General Flight and Operating Instructions Manual (May 5, 2016) · Commander, Naval Air Forces, hosted by Headquarters Marine Corps Aviation
3. 3OPNAVINST 3710.7U, NATOPS General Flight and Operating Instructions (November 23, 2009) · Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, hosted by Headquarters Marine Corps Aviation
4. 4NAVAIRINST 13034.1D, Flight Clearance Policy for Air Vehicles and Aircraft Systems (March 15, 2010) · Naval Air Systems Command (AIR-4.0P), hosted by AcqNotes
5. 5The Naval Aviation Maintenance Program (NAMP), COMNAVAIRFORINST 4790.2E, 28 Oct 2024 (with AMAs 2024-04 to 2024-07) · Commander, Naval Air Forces, posted by Naval Air Systems Command
6. 6FY 19 Grampaw Pettibone Award Winners Named · Naval Safety Center, via DVIDS (May 15, 2020)

Where this shows up in our work

• ELLMENT, the offline LLM for E-2D crews answers a crew's question from the aircraft's own manuals and cites the page, with no network.
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