diff --git a/kubernetes/aai/charts/aai-champ/templates/deployment.yaml b/kubernetes/aai/charts/aai-champ/templates/deployment.yaml
index 0c125b1..4e1866c 100644
--- a/kubernetes/aai/charts/aai-champ/templates/deployment.yaml
+++ b/kubernetes/aai/charts/aai-champ/templates/deployment.yaml
@@ -31,6 +31,21 @@
         app: {{ include "common.name" . }}
         release: {{ .Release.Name }}
     spec:
+      initContainers:
+        - command:
+          - /root/ready.py
+          args:
+          - --container-name
+          - aai-cassandra
+          env:
+          - name: NAMESPACE
+            valueFrom:
+              fieldRef:
+                apiVersion: v1
+                fieldPath: metadata.namespace
+          image: "{{ .Values.global.readinessRepository }}/{{ .Values.global.readinessImage }}"
+          imagePullPolicy: {{ .Values.global.pullPolicy | default .Values.pullPolicy }}
+          name: {{ include "common.name" . }}-readiness
       containers:
         - name: {{ include "common.name" . }}
           image: "{{ include "common.repository" . }}/{{ .Values.image }}"