establishes policy, organization, conduct, method, or
procedure. Generally, a directive is issued to do one or
more of the following:
Regulate or set up essential administration
Establish policy
Delegate authority or assign responsibility
Establish an organizational structure
Assign a mission, function, or task
Initiate or govern a course of action or conduct
Establish a procedure, technique, standard,
guide, or method of performing a duty, function,
or operation
Establish a reporting requirement
Change, supersede, or cancel another directive
At times, directives are issued that may not fall
within the scope of these criteria. These types of
directives are issued in the directives issuance system
to obtain quick and controlled dissemination. Normally
issued as a notice, a directive of this type may include
the following:
Requests for comments, approval, or in-
formation
Directions for routinely carrying out established
operations, such as matters that pertain to
individual personnel actions or special
shipments of materials
Informative announcements, such as education
or promotion opportunities, recreational
activities, work improvement plans, suggestions
for morale building, or changes in office
locations or telephone extensions
The Navy-wide use of the directive issuance
system is advantageous to those activities that receive
directives. It allows every naval activity that receives
directives to group directives by subject and combine
related subjects. Grouping and combining directives
with related subject eases the directive filing process
and distinguishes directives that are of a continuing
nature from those that are of a brief duration. Another
advantage to activities that receive directives is that the
directive issuance system allows activities to obtain
2-18
complete sets of instructions upon activation and
decommissioning. By using periodic checklists and
subject indexes (5215s), an activity can determine the
current status of directives, completeness of a set of
directives, or directives currently in force.
Use of the Navy Directives Issuance System is
advantageous to activities that issue directives. The
directive issuance system reduces the number of
directives in effect by consolidating instructions that
cover the same subject matter and eliminates
instructions that duplicate, overlap, or conflict. The
directive issuance system also improves the adequacy
and coverage of instructions, identifies gaps in policy
and procedures so other directives may be issued to
cover necessary subjects, and ensures that activities are
sent only those directives that they need.
TYPES OF DIRECTIVES
Two types of directives are used in the directives
issuance system—instructions and notices.
Instructions are directives that contain information
of a continuing nature or require continuing action. An
instruction has continuing reference value and is
effective until the originator cancels or supersedes it.
Notices are directives of a onetime nature and
usually contain information or action applicable for a
brief period (usually 6 months or less, but in no case
more than 1 year). A notice has the same force and
effect as an instruction but does not have permanent
reference value. Therefore, a notice contains provisions
for its own self-cancellation. This cancellation date
should always be stated. When the exact cancellation
date cannot be determined, a specific date for record
purposes is set far enough in the future to allow
completion of all necessary use of the notice.
The AZ uses many different instructions and
notices in the performance of daily tasks. Directives are
issued by the systems commands, bureaus, type
commands, ships, stations, and operating activities.
Many of the directives that are used in aircraft
maintenance activities are issued by the Headquarters
of the Naval Air Systems Command and are known as
NAVAIR instructions and notices. Each issuing
activity provides a catalog of issued directives by
issuing a NOTICE 5215 that lists its current directives.
The consolidated index, NAVPUBNOTE 5215,
contains a list of major commands’ directives; for
example, OPNAV, SECNAV, BUMED, and so forth.
Some of these directives are listed and found on the
Internet.
