U.S. Air Force can’t find enough people willing to be drone pilots

[xchrom]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/20/u-s-air-force-cant-find-enough-people-willing-to-be-drone-pilots/



The US Air Force is unable to keep up with a growing demand for pilots capable of operating drones, partly due to a shortage of volunteers, according to a new study.

Despite the importance placed on the burgeoning robotic fleet, drone operators face a lack of opportunities for promotion to higher ranks and the military has failed to identify and cultivate this new category of aviators, Air Force Colonel Bradley Hoagland wrote in the report published for the Brookings Institution think tank.

In 2012, the Air Force had a goal to train 1,129 “traditional” pilots and 150 drone pilots to operate Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk robotic aircraft.

But the Air Force “was not able to meet its RPA (remotely piloted aircraft) training requirements since there were not enough volunteers,” the report said.

[Jeneral2885]

1. Top Gun 2

will change this whne they see how Tom Cruise works with drones.

Or will the plot be about drones?

[LuvNewcastle]

2. Seems to me that operating a drone would be like playing a video game.

It would probably be easy to find some antisocial teenagers who could do the job as well as anyone else.

[redgreenandblue]

3. Kind of sheds doubt on the link between video games and violent behavior, doesn't it?

If playing shooter games indeed created willingness to kill, then we should see many people volunteering.

[Lee-Lee]

4. I think the problem is that they want people fully qualified to be real pilots to do it

I know for a long time all the drone pilots were real jet pilots they gave the duty, pulled from the cockpit of an F-16 or similar.

I remember reading that a lot of pilots said they would rather quit than do it, and if I had managed to earn a slot as a jet pilot on to find myself flying a drone from a trailer I would be less than happy.

Interestingly, the Army uses enlisted Soldiers and Warrant Officers to fly them instead of officers and full fledged pilots like the AF, and they don't seem to have any problems. Maybe the AF needs to drop the elitism and acknowledge that the Army has long shown not every job they say requires a degree and an officer really does.