Aia is the voice of the aerospace, defense, and homeland security industry, representing the nation's leading manufacturers and suppliers of civil, military, and business aircraft, helicopters, uass, space systems, aircraft engines, missiles, materiel, and related components, equipment, services, and information technology. Serving its members and the nation, aia establishes industry goals and strategies, achieving consensus among its members and national and global stakeholders and implementing solutions to industry-wide issues related to national and homeland security, civil aviation, and space.

The civil aviation division addresses common, noncompetitive domestic and international civil aviation issues. Strategic direction for the division is provided by the ceo-level civil aviation leadership council (calc). The calc sets the direction for the civil aviation council (cac) on the association's top civil aviation policy priorities. The cac then manages and interacts with the tactical activities of the association's committees and working groups on issues such as aircraft noise and emissions, chemical policy, certification, rulemaking and safety, air traffic systems, unmanned aircraft systems and nextgen national air transportation system modernization. The cac also coordinates with other aviation associations and safety agencies around the world. In addition, the civil aviation division helps staff the association's participation in the international coordinating council of aviation industry associations, which provides input on global aviation issues to the international civil aviation organization. Civil aviation's activities are organized around three primary objectives: (1) promote global competitive trade; (2) support transformation aviation initiatives and technology; and (3) advance policies and research that enable sustainable growth of the industry. the national security policy division is responsible for the implementation of national security policy-related goals stemming from the aia strategic plan through the defense policy council and the acquisition policy council. The defense policy council is composed of senior representatives from aia's corporate membership and is responsible for defense policy, budget, resources, and strategy. The acquisition policy council is comprised of the senior corporate contracts vice presidents of the major executive committee companies and is the primary coordination point for initial input development of acquisition topics for executive-level meetings with dod. the technical operations and workforce division is responsible for technical program management, operations, and industrial-base issues as they affect the development, production and support of aircraft, missiles, space vehicles, and aerospace systems. It coordinates and develops policy, requirements, standardization, and standards relating to technical and operational issues. The workforce council is responsible for implementing an overarching industry strategy for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) education initiatives to develop the future aerospace and defense workforce.