The Pentagon is preparing to graduate its first pilots of unmanned drones from the elite US Air Force Weapons School - a version of the Navy's Top Gun program - in a bid to elevate the skills and status of the officers who fly Predators, one of the military's fastest growing aircraft programs.
The elite flight schools of the Air Force and Navy are most closely associated with smart, tough fighter jocks. But over the course of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the MQ-1 Predator and more heavily armed MQ-9 Reaper craft have become, to many in the Pentagon, the most important aircraft the US has deployed.
In 2006, the Air Force was able to fly only 12 drones at a time. Today, the service flies 34 regular combat air patrols. As the program has expanded, the job of keeping the best pilots flying drones has proved to be a challenge.
Until recently, pilots would work on the Predators and Reapers, then return to their assigned aircraft. But the Air Force would like officers to make a career out of flying unmanned craft and become experts at operating the drones...
More at The Los Angeles Times.
Comments
Fighter Weapons School seems an excellent way to improve the combat effectiveness of drones and drone operators. As a way of helping to keep rated pilots operating drones, I have my doubts.
The problem is, from a pilots perspective...drones are boring. Normal operations of a drone are boring. I think the personalities of most people who are attracted to piloting manned aircraft are not personalities that will happily tolerate sitting behind a console year after year with the enticing prospect of sitting behind a console for years afterward. An FWS patch won't change that.
Drones are important and will become more so. It is important that they be operated by good people who are enthusiastic about their jobs. I don't see how people who dreamed of being an "heir to Lindbergh" will ever be very happy about sheparding a robot about the sky.
The services should recognize this and recruit people to be drone operators and only drone operators. There are plenty of good ones out there to choose from. Stop trying to make pilots into something they don't really want to be.