Squadron operations · Artificial intelligence · U.S. Naval Aviation
Fly more. Spreadsheet less.
Ops Buddy gives the ready room its time back. Scheduling, qualifications, currency, training, and the readiness cycle are one connected system. Instead of dozens of people and disconnected spreadsheets, Ops Buddy combines these processes using automation and AI in a user-friendly, customizable application.
Scheduling and NATOPS software for Naval Aviation. Built by a Naval Aviator, prototyped on the MQ-4C Triton.
The Product
One system, from the NATOPS jacket to the flight schedule.
Ops Buddy is a working prototype built for the MQ-4C Triton community, and it can be customized to any community in naval aviation. The Navy’s first unmanned squadron should not run on paper jackets and whiteboards.
Digital NATOPS Jacket
- Digitized, CUI-secure documents and drafting that feed directly into the scheduling tab
- Upload any NATOPS document, an up-chit, a /2, orders, and it reads the information and updates the tracking matrix
- Auto-fills the /2 and /7 forms
Operations and Scheduling
- Confirms every aircrew member is fully NATOPS qualified for the flight: up-chit, NATOPS check, EPR and the rest
- Autofill drafts the flight schedule, prioritizing aircrew for sims and flights within the hard CNAF 3710 requirements and the command’s own preferences
- A conflict generator prevents scheduling errors before the schedule is approved
- A long-term tracker for TDY, schools, leave and more, feeding future manning and qualified-crew trends
Ops Buddy AI
- Ask any question, answered from the appropriate Navy documents, or make a schedule or personnel change in plain language
- A simulator breaks and the schedule needs rewriting: the assistant rewrites it, prioritizing who needs the events most for the least impact on squadron operations
- Stress-test future manning: what happens if an instructor goes on parental leave, or two aviators go TAD?
Training
- Tracks the syllabus, sims, flights and PQS for every aircrew member, feeding both the schedule and the manpower projection
Manpower
- Projects up to three years of manpower requirements from qualifications, the long-term tracker and the training pipeline
The Flying Day
- A live view of flights, sims and ground events for the SDO, the triad or the OpsO, generated from the schedule
- Future capability to feed a squadron chat group
In active development. The capabilities described here sit at varying stages of maturity.
The Problem
A squadron’s readiness picture lives in a dozen places at once.
Every one of them maintained by hand. It costs enormous manpower, it is fragile, and it is always slightly out of date. The people doing that work are aviators.
Fragmented
Qualifications in one spreadsheet. Schools in another. Sims, ground training, syllabus progress and TDY each in their own tracker. Nothing talks to anything else.
Manual
The schedule is magnet tiles on a whiteboard in operations. NATOPS jackets are paper. Currency is tracked by hand. Every change means finding and updating the same fact in five places.
Static
The picture is a snapshot, not a live state. By the time it is assembled, something has already changed.
Fragile
A missed expiration doesn’t surface until someone is already on the schedule. The check is a person remembering.
Reactive
Nobody can answer “what happens if” without rebuilding the plan by hand. So nobody asks, and problems are discovered instead of anticipated.
Inconsistent
Every platform has different requirements and every squadron has different assumptions. Generic tools can’t hold either, so squadrons build their own spreadsheets — again.
See It Work
Build the schedule once. Correctly.
Every rule that used to live in somebody’s head is checked on every name, every time. Pick a question below and see how the product answers it. Nine screens, fictional squadron, real layout.
Nine examples of Ops Buddy functions. Click one.
“Build the flight schedule”
Autofill makes recommendations for who should fill the flight schedule. It reviews NATOPS qualifications, medical status, crew rest, currency, etc. and makes a priority list to aid the schedule writer. Conflicts are immediately flagged with a recommended solution.
Demonstration data — fictional squadron, crews and aircraft
“AI assistant”
AI function is based on Navy rules and regulations and custom command requirements. For instance, it can make rapid changes to the flight schedule (the simulator for tomorrow is broken, rebuild the flight schedule and prioritize who needs the sim time the most), stress test future manpower requirements (how many instructor pilots can go on parental leave or TDY at a time?), and answer users’ questions by citing the applicable instructions.
OPS BUDDY
Thalassa Technologies, LLC
VUP-99 · MQ-4C TRITON
WHERE YOU STAND
NATOPS Check Flight short 34.4 hours, 7 approaches, 3 of them in the aircraft due in 60 days · 13 NOV 2026
Counting since 13 NOV 2025 — 65.6 hours (53.6 aircraft, 12 sim) · 5 approaches (3 in the aircraft) · 6 night.
✦Ops Buddy AI×
Do my simulator hours count toward the NATOPS check?
Yes, with a limit. Your command counts simulator hours toward the NATOPS Check Flight requirement, capped at 40% of the total — so at most 40 of the 100 hours.
You have logged 12 sim hours, so up to 28 more would still count. The approaches are different: 6 of the 12 must be flown in the aircraft, and you have 3.
Sources · Command Settings › Assumptions/Rules — “Simulator hours count toward the hours”, max share 0.4 · OPNAVINST 3710.7 ch. 8, simulator credit toward currency (paragraph cited in the command’s requirement record)
Ask about the board, or about NATOPS…
“The aircraft commander just called IMSAFE. Who can take the flight?”
Ops Buddy makes a recommendation for a replacement based on the pilots who are qualified, current, medically up, rested and available. It also shows what each schedule swap costs the rest of the week. When the solution takes seconds, calling IMSAFE stops being a hard decision.
Demonstration data — fictional squadron, crews and aircraft
Ops Buddy
VUP-99 · MQ-4C TRITON
0450LT D. Iverson — IMSAFE — fatigue
Aircraft Commander on ORBIT ALPHA · 169XXX · 0630 takeoff. Two hours to launch.
Legal for this event · ranked by cost to the plan
- 1
LCDR T. AlvaradoPilotRecommended
AC qualified, all currencies green. Off watch since 1900, 11h 30m rest.
Cost — No second-order effect. Ground slot at 0900 moves to Boateng.
- 2
LT N. BoatengAVO
AC qualified, all currencies green. No conflicting assignment.
Cost — Pulls him off INST-2 in TOFT 1. Sim reschedules to Thursday.
- 3
LCDR H. SandovalNATOPS Officer
AC qualified, all currencies green. Currently unassigned.
Cost — Delays two jacket reviews ahead of the FNE.
Blocked by the rules engine
- LTJG R. CastellanosPilotInstrument check expired 14 JUL 2026
- LT S. MarchettiAVONot AC qualified — upgrade in progress
- LT J. KowalskiMPOCrew rest — landed 0230, 4h 20m
“The sim went down”
A broken simulator is a small event with large consequences. The effect on ARP, ORE and every upgrade timeline is computed the moment the event is canceled, and the rebuild options are ranked by what they cost the plan.
Demonstration data — fictional squadron, crews and aircraft
Ops Buddy
VUP-99 · MQ-4C TRITON
1418TOFT 2 down for unscheduled maintenance
2 events canceled: NATOPS CK (1400–1730), EMER-7 (Tomorrow 0800–1130).
Second- and third-order effects · computed
ARPNo impact
Simulator events this period drop to 60 of 64. Still inside tolerance.
ORE milestoneWatch
Crew certification event on 14 OCT at risk if TOFT 2 is down more than four days.
Upgrade timelineWatch
LTJG Petrov’s AC upgrade slips two weeks unless NATOPS CK is re-flown by 19 SEP.
CurrencyNo impact
LCDR Sandoval’s instrument currency lapses 28 JAN 2027. No near-term exposure.
Rebuild options · cheapest change first
- 1
Move both events to TOFT 1Recommended
TOFT 1 has 1730–2030 open tonight and 1130–1430 tomorrow. Both crews are available and rested for those windows.
Cost — Nothing else moves. ORE milestone protected.
- 2
Re-fly NATOPS CK Thursday, hold EMER-7
Keeps TOFT 1 free for the FAM syllabus. Petrov’s upgrade stays on timeline.
Cost — EMER-7 slips a week. ARP drops to 58 of 64.
- 3
Convert NATOPS CK to an aircraft event
169XXX is up and unassigned tomorrow. Requires an instructor and burns 3.2 flight hours.
Cost — Flight hours against the monthly allocation. Upgrade timeline held.
“FNE jacket reviews in minutes, not days”
Digital NATOPS jackets allow instantaneous qualifications reviews. All documents are saved CUI on the platform. Automatic reminders are sent to users with pre-filled templates for documents such as /2 /7.
Demonstration data — fictional squadron, crews and aircraft
“An upgraded and integrated version of SHARP”
Upload function for documents that scans the info and saves it to the matrix.
Demonstration data — fictional squadron, crews and aircraft
“What does the next six months look like?”
Stay ahead of manning and upgrade requirements. Schools, TAD, leave, instructor training and detachments for the whole squadron on one timeline, with the manning consequences underneath.
Demonstration data — fictional squadron, crews and aircraft
“Will I have enough aircraft commanders in 6 months?”
Training timelines and syllabi in one easy view. Requirements for upgrade sims/flights and instructors are fed into the scheduling tool and future manpower requirements.
Demonstration data — fictional squadron, crews and aircraft
“What is happening right now?”
Quick view for an SDO, triad, or OpsO to see a live view of flights, sims, and ground events. Future capability to feed into a squadron chat group.
Demonstration data — fictional squadron, crews and aircraft
“Can I put him in that seat?”
Not if his NATOPS is down. The board refuses the assignment, says why on the tile, and offers who to pick instead, ranked by what it costs the plan.
“The sim just went down.”
Tonight is rebuilt automatically, with the knock-on effects on ARP, ORE and every upgrade timeline computed rather than discovered next month.
“My AC just called IMSAFE.”
Ranked replacements who are actually qualified, current, medically up, rested and available. Seconds, not a scramble.
“The FNE is in six weeks.”
Every jacket already audited against the standard, continuously. Walk in knowing what the evaluator will find.
Or follow the through-line
Follow one aviator from “due in 60 days” to a filed check.
This is the through-line. Eight screens, in order, doing the parts of a NATOPS check that today live in a spreadsheet, an email, and somebody’s memory — every one of them the application itself except the two marked as renderings. Click a step, or use the arrows.
Step 1 of 8 · NATOPS › Matrix
The check is due in 60 days — and the hours aren’t there yet
No one has to remember. The warning window is a command setting — 60 days by default — and the moment a NATOPS check crosses it the cell turns amber on the squadron matrix and the aviator is notified. The ledger has already compared what has been flown against what the check requires, and says in plain English what is still owed.
Demonstration data — fictional squadron, crews and aircraft
VUP-99 is not a real squadron and none of these people exist.
Security
Squadron readiness data is CUI. It is treated that way from day one.
Security requirements shaped the design from the start. Ops Buddy is being built for a CUI-authorized cloud environment under Department of Defense security requirements, with credentialed access — so that accreditation is a review of existing design rather than a rewrite.
Current accreditation status
Ops Buddy is in active development and holds no security accreditation today. It is not currently CUI compliant, not FedRAMP authorized, and is not operating under an Authority to Operate. Nothing on this page claims or implies otherwise. Demonstrations run on synthetic data only.
Request a Demo
Request a demo.
A walkthrough runs about thirty minutes on demonstration data. Ops Buddy is built for the MQ-4C Triton community first and is customizable to any other platform in naval aviation.