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Where Are All the Good Drone Pilots?

Pennsylvania Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Robert Frey pilots an RQ-7B Shadow 200 aircraf t on a simulator at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa. // 109th Mobile Public Af f airs Detachment Col. Brad Hoagland August 6, 2013 T he Af ghanistan and Iraq wars have resulted in unmanned aircraf t systems, or remotely piloted aircraf t, providing more strategic-level ef f ects than any other weapon system in the Air Force inventory. Besides regular use on the battlef ield, these intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and strike aircraf t are used as the weapon of choice f or the White House to prosecute targets that are a risk to our national security (primarily the al Qaeda network). As a result, the Air Force has aggressively enhanced its remotely piloted aircraf t (RPA) capabilities over the last f ew years and is currently supporting 61 combat air patrols that operate 24-hours per day, predominantly in Af ghanistan, Yemen and the North Af rica coast. T his capability will continue to grow over the next f ew years due to a secretary of def ense-directed requirement of 65 daily patrols by mid-2014.

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Col. Brad Hoagland is a Federal Executive Fellow at the Brookings Institutions Center f or 21st Century Security and Intelligence. An Air Force of f icer with 23 years of service, he most recently served as the director of operations f or the White House Military Of f ice, where he led the Presidential ... Full Bio On the operator f ront, the RPA pilot career f ield hovered around the 50-person level in the late 1990s but now exceeds 1,300 and is growing to approximately 1,650 by f iscal year 2017. However, as the combat air patrol requirement grows at a f aster pace than the Air Force can train personnel to operate these systems, it is apparent that the RPA career f ield is not properly identif ying and prof essionally developing these pilots. Mental health and post-traumatic stress disorder f actors aside, there are signif icant issues that conf ront the RPA community, and these problems are not receiving the level of attention they deserve. First, the RPA

career f ield is f ailing to accurately prescreen and assess the most appropriate pilots to f ly RPA, which is resulting in an attrition rate during RPA Flight Screening three times higher than traditional pilots. Second, RPA pilots are unable to meet promotion education and training opportunities commensurate with other of f icers, resulting in a 13 percent lower promotion rate to the rank of major over the last f ive years. T he Air Force must take a new approach and reevaluate the personnel programs that most ef f ectively contribute to this vital mission. First, the Air Force must standardize the Pilot Candidate Scoring Method, which measures a pilots ability to be trained, across all commissioning sources and incorporate psychological prescreening tools f or the selection process f or pilots. Second, the assignment process must ensure that there are enough rated, qualif ied candidates to meet Air Force-wide requirements f or manned and unmanned aircraf t. A volunteer f or one pilot specialty is a volunteer f or all pilot specialties. In addition, the U.S. Air Force Academy should mandate participation and successf ul completion of the Soaring and UAS Airmanship programs prior to the commencement of the Initial Flight Screening course, and the Board Order of Merit should not be f inalized until af ter Initial Flight Screening. T hird, the Air Force needs to expand their collaboration with industry and academia in order to glean lessons learned and best practices f or unmanned systems, and then incorporate them into curricula at the academy and ROT C units. Fourth, the Air Force should establish a rated f orce developmental plan that cross-f lows rated of f icers f rom other Air Force aircraf t into RPA and tracks these high-potential of f icers f or f uture education, training and command opportunities. Fif th, an aggressive enterprise-wide recruiting strategy and strategic communication plan is needed. T his should f ocus on placing RPA mentors at all commissioning sources and include a grass-roots message in the training and operational communities that highlights the growing commercialization and strategic importance of unmanned systems, as well as the high-tech and savvy personnel that are required to f ly these systems. T he recommendations above are pragmatic changes that should be implemented to more ef f ectively identif y and develop f uture RPA pilots (a career f ield that now produces more pilots than traditional f ighter and bomber pilots combined). T hey are based on a continuum of education and learning f rom day one at one of the various commissioning sources all the way until promotion into the senior leadership ranks within the Air Force. T he sooner the Air Force f ully integrates these aviators into its prof essional developmental plans, the more ef f ective the RPA community will be in recruiting, training and retaining high potential of f icers. With more RPA-experienced senior of f icers, the Air Force will also remain on the cutting edge of this new technology and its employment. In summary, the Air Force mission is to f ly, f ight and win, and the personnel that support this mission must be assigned at the right place and the right time to more ef f ectively f ight our nations wars. T he new generation of unmanned aircraf t systems pilots is here, and the Air Force must redef ine its airmindedness culture in order to lead the country into the next decade of aviation innovation and greatness. To read Col. Hoagland's f ull report click here.