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United States Air Force Needs a Few Hundred Good Drone Pilots
The military brass in charge of America's drones say that there's a shortage of pilots.
According to The New York Times, a "significant number" of the 1,200 United States Air Force pilots are "coming up for re-enlistment and are opting to leave, while a training program is producing only about half of the new pilots that the service needs."
Col. James Cluff, commander of the Air Force's 432nd Wing, invited the Times along with a few other media onto the decade-old nerve center of drone operations outside of Las Vegas on Tuesday. He told them that the Air Force has pulled instructors from schools to the "flight line." The agency now conducts 65 drone flights a day, a number that is expected to drop to 60 by fall 2015.
With the rise of the Islamic State and other global hotspots, there is increasing pressure on the Air Force to provide more drone flights. But while drone operators get to see their families at night and are half a globe away from their targets, it still takes a toll.
"Having our folks make that mental shift every day, driving into the gate and thinking, 'All right, I've got my war face on, and I'm going to the fight,' and then driving out of the gate and stopping at Wal-Mart to pick up a carton of milk or going to the soccer game on the way home—and the fact that you can't talk about most of what you do at home—all those stressors together are what is putting pressure on the family, putting pressure on the airman," Col. Cluff said.
Any takers?
USAF Cuts Drone Flights as Stress Drives Off Operators
The NYT reports that the US is being forced to cut back on drone flights as America's drone operators are burning out and the Air Force is losing more drone pilots than they can train. "We're at an inflection point right now," says Col. James Cluff, the commander of the Air Force's 432nd Wing. Drone missions increased tenfold in the past decade, relentlessly pushing the operators in an effort to meet the insatiable demand for streaming video of insurgent activities in Iraq, Afghanistan and other war zones, including Somalia, Libya and now Syria. The biggest problem is that a significant number of the 1,200 pilots are completing their obligation to the Air Force and are opting to leave. Colonel Cluff says that many feel "undermanned and overworked," sapped by alternating day and night shifts with little chance for academic breaks or promotion.
What had seemed to be a benefit of the job, the novel way that the crews could fly Predator and Reaper drones via satellite links while living safely in the United States with their families, has created new types of stresses as they constantly shift back and forth between war and family activities and become, in effect, perpetually deployed. The colonel says the stress on the operators belied a complaint by some critics that flying drones was like playing a video game or that pressing the missile fire button 7,000 miles from the battlefield made it psychologically easier for them to kill. "Everyone else thinks that the whole program or the people behind it are a joke," says Brandon Bryant, a former drone camera operator who worked at Nellis Air Force Base, "that we are video-game warriors, that we're Nintendo warriors."
(Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Wednesday June 17 2015, @08:59PM
Its a relative thing. Their buddies still in a pilots seat are racking up pilot in command hours so they can retire into a 777 seat for $100K/yr, at least thats the theory, meanwhile they're stuck playing video games, which means after they get out they're qualified to ... um ... well without the minimum # of flight hours to get an ATP ticket, not a hell of a lot.
Aside from that they're being passed up in the race for hours, no way around it even if they get a job with the majors the dude with twice the hours is going to end up at the better airline, better pay, better life for their family, etc.
I wanted to be a pilot when I was young but the supply/demand equation means life pretty much sucks. Its like becoming a kindergarden teacher or getting a PHD to go into academia, just too many bodies chasing too few jobs, by a factor of, maybe ten?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday June 17 2015, @09:10PM
But the drone industry is gonna be big! And if the FAA requires warm bodies within sight of the craft, that's jobs!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2015, @03:27PM
that's jobs!
You'll find the correct pronunciation to be "jaaahhbs"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2015, @10:17PM
Most of that sounds like my job (except the 777 part): long shit hours, no opportunities for advancement or academic break. I'll bet their boss doesn't get to rub some hours off their time sheets because the budget can't support it, either.
I guess the upside for my job is that I don't have to kill random people just to get one target.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 17 2015, @11:56PM
I guess the upside for my job is that I don't have to kill random people just to get one target.
Have you thought about contracting with the military to teach them your more accurate killing technique?
(Score: 2) by wantkitteh on Thursday June 18 2015, @10:32AM
"meanwhile they're stuck playing video games, which means after they get out they're qualified to ... um ..."
Work for Amazon? I was also under the impression that airline pilots are being paid diddly these days and having to take multiple jobs? Or is that just a subset?