Aviation electronics technician ( United States Navy rating ) Aviation electronics technician ( AT ) is a US Navy enlisted rating or job specialty ( often called MOS or AFSC by other services ) . At the paygrade of E - 9 ( master chief petty officer ) ATs merge with the aviation electrician ' s mate ( AE ) rating to become avionics technicians ( AV ) . There has been talk of completely merging the two ratings , but as yet no definite plans have been announced . Aviation electronics technicians wear the specialty mark of a winged helium atom . Aviation electronics technicians ( intermediate ) perform intermediate level maintenance on aviation electronic components supported by conventional and automatic test equipment , including repair of weapons replaceable assemblies and shop replaceable assemblies and perform test equipment calibration / repair and associated test bench maintenance . Aviation electronics technicians ( organizational ) perform organizational level maintenance on aviation electronics systems , to include : communications , radar , navigation , antisubmarine warfare sensors , electronic warfare , data link , fire control and tactical displays with associated equipment . History . The rating now known as AT can trace its origin to World War II , when the rating of aviation radio technician was established on 11 December 1942 . This rating was re - designated aviation electronics technician ' s mate on 31 October 1945 . Effective 2 April 1948 the name of the rating became aviation electronics technician ( AET ) ; the abbreviation was changed to ( AT ) on 9 June of the same year . A separate rating , aviation electronicsman was absorbed in 1955 . The former ratings of aviation fire control technician and aviation antisubmarine warfare technician were absorbed into the AT rating effective 1 January 1991 . ATs were at one time further subdivided into aircraft equipment , ground equipment , radio and navigation equipment , radar and navigation equipment , ordnance and airborne CIC equipment . The ground equipment duties are now served by an aircraft support equipmentman . The ordnance duties remain a separate rating , and these personnel currently conduct far less electronics troubleshooting . Their training is more aligned with explosives - handling . All of the other subdivisions have since been re - merged back into the AT rating . General information . ATs perform duties at sea and ashore all over the world . They may work indoors , outdoors , in a shop environment , in an aircraft squadron or on an aircraft carrier . They work closely with others , require little supervision , and do mental and physical work of a technical nature . ATs , as well as the other members of the Navy ' s aviation community , are sometimes referred to as " airedales " by those in the surface or submarine forces . They are sometimes referred to as " trons " , " tron chasers " , or " tweaks " ( in the case of calibration technicians ) , within the aviation community . Billy C . Sanders , the fifth Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy , first served as an aviation electronics technician . Different types . There are currently two types of ATs : intermediate ( I - level ) and organizational ( O - level ) . These two levels do not affect their rate insignia or change how they are addressed ( an AT3 is an AT3 , regardless of I - or O - level ) . However , their duties are significantly different , and I - level and O - level ATs take different advancement exams , as if they were different rates . Furthermore , I - level technicians ' A - school is twice as long as O - level technicians . I - level technicians work on the individual printed circuit board s within an actual component such as a radio . They are the technicians that connect the component to a test bench to simulate an aircraft , and troubleshoot and repair the equipment . In some instances the technician will not repair specific circuit card assemblies ( CCAs ) ; these CCAs will either go to depot level or back to the original manufacturer for repair . I - level AT ' s are usually assigned to fleet readiness centers on shore or aircraft intermediate maintenance departments aboard ships . The most challenging and demanding specialty that AT ' s can have is to be a calibration technician . Without properly calibrated gear such as , test sets , oscilloscopes , spectrum analyzers , frequency counters , meters , gauges , thermometers , torque wrenches , and transducers , the rest of the maintenance ratings , for aircraft and ships alike , would not be able to their jobs effectively . I - level AT ' s are expected to have some electronics engineering knowledge , and are not generally expected to know much about aircraft - specific systems . O - level technicians troubleshoot various discrepancies with the use of multimeters and avionics test equipment to locate faults within the aircraft . An O - level AT will determine if the discrepancy that the aircrew reported is an aircraft - wiring problem or a system problem . If the problem is aircraft wiring , the AT will repair the wiring problem on the aircraft . If the problem is determined to be an assembled component of a system , the assembly will be removed and turned in to AIMD for repair . The assembly can be replaced with parts that the squadron may keep as spares in order to keep the aircraft operational . Keeping spare parts at the squadron - level is usually not standard operating procedure , but these rules are frequently relaxed during intense operations due to the need for expedient turn - around . In addition to their separate duties as electronics technicians , O - level AT ' s are sometimes combined with aviation electrician ' s mates and aviation ordnancemen into a work center called IWT ( integrated weapons team ) . As electronics have migrated into other aircraft systems ( such as flight control and weapons control ) , the IWT team is given the duties of maintaining specifically the armament and weapons systems , whereas a separate AT workcenter is responsible for non - weapons based electronics such as communications and navigation . This is usually done at the organizational level , and is not Navy - wide . O - level AT ' s are assigned to squadrons and perform most of their work on the flight deck or in hangar bays of carriers , and on the flight line or in the aircraft hangars on land . These ATs are expected to have a detailed understanding of how the systems interface with the aircraft .