- How the AA-II Blueprint Is Built
- The Six Domains and Their Weights at a Glance
- Domain 1: Safety of Navigation
- Domain 2: Customer Requirements
- Domain 3: Production
- Domain 4: Quality Assurance
- Domain 5: Data Processing
- Domain 6: Customer Operations
- Sequencing Your Preparation Around the Weights
- Exam Mechanics That Shape How You Study
- Reading the Official Sources Correctly
- Frequently Asked Questions
- The Aeronautical Analysis Proficiency Level II (AA-II) exam covers six competencies whose weights total 100%.
- Safety of Navigation and Production are the heaviest domains at 25% each, together half the exam.
- AA-II has 110 questions in 150 minutes, paper-based, administered by authorized NGA assessment sites.
- Domain weights come from NGA's January 2023 Essential Body of Knowledge, confirmed in the 2025 Program Handbook.
How the AA-II Blueprint Is Built
The GEOINT Professional Certification (GPC) program run by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is organized by discipline and proficiency level. This article is about one specific credential: Aeronautical Analysis, Proficiency Level II (AA-II). It sits above the foundational GPC-F certification, which is a prerequisite and not a substitute. If you are still orienting yourself, the explainers on what GPC certification is and GPC eligibility requirements cover the program-level picture before you dive into domain detail.
The AA-II exam is built from six formal examination core competencies. NGA publishes them in the Essential Body of Knowledge (EBK) for Aeronautical Analysis: Proficiency Level II, dated January 19, 2023, and the GEOINT Professional Certification Program Handbook (March 11, 2025) confirms the same six-competency blueprint in Appendix J. These are examination competencies, not chapter headings from a training course, so treat them as the definitive statement of what the exam measures.
The Six Domains and Their Weights at a Glance
The weights total 100%. Notice how concentrated the exam is: two domains account for half the content, and the three smallest domains together account for roughly a third.
| Domain | Name | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Safety of Navigation: Aeronautical Governance and Industry | 25% |
| 2 | Customer Requirements: Aeronautical Source | 15% |
| 3 | Production: Aeronautical GEOINT Production | 25% |
| 4 | Quality Assurance: Aeronautical Quality | 13% |
| 5 | Data Processing: Aeronautical Data | 10% |
| 6 | Customer Operations: Aeronautical Customer Service and Data/Product Access | 12% |
With 110 questions on the exam, the weights give a rough sense of proportion, but the program does not publish an exact per-domain question count, so treat any item tally you see elsewhere as an estimate. What the weights do tell you reliably is where an hour of study buys the most coverage. For a deeper look at difficulty by area, see how hard the GPC exam is.
Domain 1: Safety of Navigation: Aeronautical Governance and Industry (25%)
Tied for the largest weight, this domain frames the entire aeronautical analyst's job: the products and data you handle exist to support safe flight. Expect the exam to test whether you understand the governance and industry environment in which aeronautical information is created, shared, and trusted.
What candidates must understand
Governance and industry context for aeronautical information, and how that context drives analytic decisions affecting safety of navigation.
- The governance structures and standards that shape aeronautical data and product creation
- How industry practice and international conventions interact with government aeronautical production
- Why accuracy, currency, and traceability of aeronautical information are safety issues, not just quality preferences
- How analysts recognize and respond to changes that affect flight safety
How to approach it
Because "governance and industry" is a broad label, candidates often underestimate it. Read the relevant EBK sections line by line and build a glossary of the standards bodies, publication types, and authoritative references named there. When a scenario asks what an analyst should do about a discrepancy, the safe-navigation lens is almost always the tiebreaker between answer choices.
Domain 2: Customer Requirements: Aeronautical Source (15%)
The second-heaviest after the two 25% domains, this competency is about understanding what customers need and what source material can satisfy those needs. The domain title pairs requirements with source, which signals that the exam links the demand side (what the customer is trying to accomplish) to the supply side (which aeronautical sources are authoritative, current, and suitable).
What candidates must understand
How to translate a customer's operational need into source selection and sourcing decisions.
- Identifying and interpreting customer requirements for aeronautical data and products
- Evaluating the suitability, authority, and currency of aeronautical sources
- Recognizing gaps between what a source provides and what a requirement demands
- Documenting source decisions so downstream production and quality steps can rely on them
This domain connects forward into production and backward into governance, so it rewards candidates who think in workflows rather than isolated facts. Mapping a single requirement from intake through source selection to a finished product is a strong way to study it.
Domain 3: Production: Aeronautical GEOINT Production (25%)
The other 25% domain, and the most hands-on one. It addresses how aeronautical GEOINT products are actually produced. Candidates at Proficiency Level II are expected to bring full-performance tradecraft, so questions here tend to assume real working familiarity with the production lifecycle rather than introductory definitions.
What candidates must understand
The end-to-end production of aeronautical GEOINT products at a full-performance level.
- Production workflows and the decision points within them
- How analytic judgment is applied when sources conflict or are incomplete
- How products are compiled, maintained, and updated over time
- The relationship between production procedures and the standards that govern them
Because Production and Safety of Navigation together make up half the exam, a candidate who is strong in both has a large cushion. Candidates who are strong in one and weak in the other should consider which side is the bigger risk before scheduling. The article on the GPC passing score explains why the passing threshold itself is not publicly stated, which makes balanced preparation the safer plan.
Domain 4: Quality Assurance: Aeronautical Quality (13%)
Quality assurance is a mid-sized domain at 13%, but it connects to everything else: a quality failure in an aeronautical product is a potential safety-of-navigation problem. Expect questions about how quality is defined, measured, and maintained across the product lifecycle.
What candidates must understand
How aeronautical products and data are checked, validated, and held to standard.
- Quality criteria for aeronautical data and products
- Verification and validation approaches and when each applies
- Identifying, documenting, and correcting errors
- How quality feedback loops improve later production
A useful study habit is to pair every production concept from Domain 3 with its quality counterpart here. If you can state how a production step is produced and how it is checked, you are covering two domains with one pass.
Domain 5: Data Processing: Aeronautical Data (10%)
The smallest domain at 10%, covering the handling and processing of aeronautical data. Do not read "smallest" as "skippable." At 110 questions, a 10% domain is a meaningful slice, and its content feeds directly into production and quality questions elsewhere on the exam.
What candidates must understand
How aeronautical data is ingested, structured, processed, and prepared for use.
- Characteristics and structure of aeronautical data
- Processing steps that transform raw source data into usable form
- Data integrity concerns during processing
- How processed data supports product creation and customer delivery
Domain 6: Customer Operations: Aeronautical Customer Service and Data/Product Access (12%)
The final domain, at 12%, concerns the service side of the mission: getting the right aeronautical data and products to the people who need them, and supporting those customers. It bookends Domain 2, which starts with understanding the customer, by covering what happens once products are ready to be delivered and used.
What candidates must understand
Customer service and the access mechanisms for aeronautical data and products.
- How customers discover, request, and obtain aeronautical data and products
- Service expectations and responsiveness to customer needs
- Access considerations that affect who can receive what
- Handling customer feedback and issues that surface after delivery
Sequencing Your Preparation Around the Weights
This is the one place where general study planning earns a spot, and it is tied directly to the blueprint. A sensible order front-loads the 25% domains, then moves through the workflow-linked domains in sequence. The sample timeline below assumes several weeks of preparation; compress or stretch it to fit your own schedule, and see the GPC study guide for a fuller planning framework.
Safety of Navigation (25%)
- Build a glossary of governance bodies, standards, and publication types from the EBK
- Practice explaining why each concept matters for flight safety
Production (25%) with Quality Assurance (13%)
- Trace the production lifecycle step by step
- For each step, write down the matching quality check
Customer Requirements (15%) and Data Processing (10%)
- Follow one requirement from intake to source selection to processed data
- Review data handling and integrity concepts
Customer Operations (12%) and full review
- Cover access and service topics
- Run mixed original practice sets across all six domains
The logic: Safety of Navigation first, because it supplies the vocabulary and reasoning the other domains lean on; Production and Quality together, because they mirror each other; and the supporting domains last, because they are easiest to absorb once the core workflow is clear. A one-page GPC cheat sheet built as you go is a handy final-week review tool.
Exam Mechanics That Shape How You Study
Knowing the format helps you choose study methods that match the test.
| Feature | AA-II Detail |
|---|---|
| Questions | 110 |
| Time limit | 150 minutes |
| Delivery | Paper-based, in English |
| Administration | NGA GPC Program Management Office, authorized assessment sites, approved proctors at government facilities |
| Cost to eligible candidates | Free; not an unrestricted public purchase |
| Retake after failure | 90-calendar-day wait after each exposure |
| Identification | Advance registration and valid government-issued photo ID required |
| In the testing area | Proctors supply materials; personal electronics prohibited |
The program permits multiple-choice, true/false, matching, and fill-in-the-blank items, but that is a program-wide list. The AA-II-specific mix of item types is not established in public sources, so prepare for varied formats rather than assuming all questions are multiple choice. Roughly 150 minutes for 110 questions leaves a little under a minute and a half per item on average, so practice answering at pace on paper. Details on scheduling are in the GPC exam dates guide, and the cost picture is covered in the GPC certification cost breakdown.
Key Takeaway
Because the exam is paper-based with prohibited electronics and a retake wait of 90 calendar days, you get fewer second chances than a computer-based exam with quick rescheduling. Treat your first attempt as the real one and confirm your readiness against all six domains before you register.
Reading the Official Sources Correctly
Two NGA documents carry the most weight for your preparation. The Essential Body of Knowledge for Aeronautical Analysis: Proficiency Level II (January 19, 2023, release NGA-U-2023-00519) is the scope source: it defines the six competencies and their weights. The GEOINT Professional Certification Program Handbook (March 11, 2025, release NGA-U-2025-01871) is the administrative source and confirms the blueprint in Appendix J, with eligibility on pages 7-8 and the AA-II question count and timing on page 11. The program's central page on the NGA website indexes current documents and maintenance requirements.
One more boundary: the AA-II assessment is marked U//FOUO in the Handbook, and actual assessment content is controlled and not authorized for public release or personal use. Legitimate preparation relies on the public objectives and on original practice questions written to those objectives, not on reproductions of real exam items. Likewise, GPC-F question banks are not AA-II coverage; GPC-F is a prerequisite credential, and its content does not substitute for AA-II preparation. Practice sets built for this credential are available through the GPC practice test platform, and the GPC pass rate article explains why no verified pass rate is available for AA-II.
Who this credential serves
AA-II is aimed at working aeronautical analysts inside the National System for Geospatial Intelligence, so the people who benefit are largely those in Department of Defense and partner GEOINT roles, which also means eligibility is gated by clearance and employer good standing. Questions about careers and pay are addressed in the GPC jobs overview and the GPC certification ROI analysis. Keep in mind that AA-II expires and renews with GPC-F, with 100 professional development units across the three-year GPC-F cycle maintaining all held GPC credentials, so the credential is a long-term commitment rather than a one-time test.
For more practice built around the six domains, head to the main practice test site and work through domain-targeted sets before your registration window.
Frequently Asked Questions
Six. They are Safety of Navigation, Customer Requirements, Production, Quality Assurance, Data Processing, and Customer Operations, with weights of 25%, 15%, 25%, 13%, 10%, and 12%, totaling 100%.
Safety of Navigation: Aeronautical Governance and Industry and Production: Aeronautical GEOINT Production are the largest at 25% each, so together they make up half the exam. Customer Requirements follows at 15%.
They are the formal AA-II examination core competencies in NGA's Essential Body of Knowledge dated January 19, 2023, and the March 2025 GPC Program Handbook confirms the six-competency blueprint in Appendix J.
It has 110 questions with a 150-minute limit, is paper-based, and is delivered in English at authorized assessment sites. The exact mix of item types for AA-II is not specified in public sources.
No. The AA-II assessment is marked U//FOUO and its content is controlled and not authorized for public release or personal use. Study from the published EBK objectives and use original practice questions instead.