Drone Pilots: We Don’t Get No Respect

[fox two]

Not sure if I'm following your question, but it's kind of like your company commander turning to you and saying: "Buck up, Soldier. It will work this time, I'm sure of it!"

...oh, and he's telling you that while you're getting off the boat at Gallipoli.

Isn't that what's already going on this year? Lots of units right now are getting 100% must-fill RPA billets. But with the 2nd/3rd assignment pilots, their commitments are coming up in a few years and they have no intention of staying.

[Guest]

URT is doubling production for FY16. In the process of hiring 14+ more civilian sim instructors and expect more green-suiters as well.

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[BFM this]

Isn't that what's already going on this year? Lots of units right now are getting 100% must-fill RPA billets. But with the 2nd/3rd assignment pilots, their commitments are coming up in a few years and they have no intention of staying.

Maybe if the Air Force walked the talk. There is already a mechanism in place to provide a steady flow of rated talent: the ALFA tour construct. How about getting guys after their first tour, and getting them back to their jet? Better yet, how about getting some of the folks already in the field a chance to get back. I'm under no delusions here: I led a charmed existence as an 11F--that's the only reason that I'm not sitting in NM and I have a manned Form-8.

My comments were about repeating bad ideas: UPT direct tops that list.

URT is doubling production for FY16. In the process of hiring 14+ more civilian sim instructors and expect more green-suiters as well.

Yes, this is productive, but this will incur a short term cost to the units as they shoulder the spike in the FTU bill. How about planning further out, so we're not repeating past mistakes?

[guineapigfury]

Maybe if the Air Force walked the talk. There is already a mechanism in place to provide a steady flow of rated talent: the ALFA tour construct. How about getting guys after their first tour, and getting them back to their jet? Better yet, how about getting some of the folks already in the field a chance to get back. I'm under no delusions here: I led a charmed existence as an 11F--that's the only reason that I'm not sitting in NM and I have a manned Form-8.

My comments were about repeating bad ideas: UPT direct tops that list.

Yes, this is productive, but this will incur a short term cost to the units as they shoulder the spike in the FTU bill. How about planning further out, so we're not repeating past mistakes?

This is what noone is talking about. My old squadron has a bill for 18 IPs over the next year. When I left, we had 16 IPs counting me. Do the math. Edited June 24, 2015 by guineapigfury

[BFM this]

This is what noone is talking about. My old squadron has a bill for 18 IPs over the next year. When I left, we had 16 IPs counting me. Do the math.

Don't need to be a qualified IP before you step to HMN. I know this because some of the folks my sq sent to HMN were not in the IPUG que before they left...

While I empathize with the conundrum, this is wholly the AF's doing. This is the second time in less than a decade that the AF has had to gut the line units to plus up the FTU, so that they can then ramp up output.

But that was just an accident, and it only happened twice...

Hopefully, in addition to doubling down on bad ideas, the AF takes this opportunity to ramp up some meaningful 18X production. That's the long term fix--rated presence among a core field of 18X'ers. There will never be enough 11's to fill the need, especially with the wave of the future going to less #'s of gold plated airframes on the ramp. But with more 18X'ers, there should be more that percolate to the top (WIC, school, etc.)--enough to at some point allow the weak swimmers to be culled from the herd [*gasp* adhering to actual standards?].

[viper154]

It's now official. RPAs will begin to be dropped to active duty UPT students. 6 RPAs per class, 2 per base, starting with 15-13s assignment night in 3 weeks.

[HU&W]

It's now official. RPAs will begin to be dropped to active duty UPT students. 6 RPAs per class, 2 per base, starting with 15-13s assignment night in 3 weeks.

Source?

[viper154]

Wing Commander briefing to class 15-13 and 15-14 at all 3 UPT bases a couple hours ago. Leadership is waiting on a memo with details.

[HU&W]

Wing Commander briefing to class 15-13 and 15-14 at all 3 UPT bases a couple hours ago. Leadership is waiting on a memo with details.

Copy, thx.

[SurelySerious]

Trying the same thing and expecting different results?

[BFM this]

Jumped the shark

[hispeed7721]

I can't get the PDF to attach, but here is the memo that was sent out

All, ! PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE E-MAIL! (Printable pdf attached)

Remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) again part of T-1 assignments - As you may already be aware, remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) are again a part of the T-1 assignment process. This morning the wing commander discussed the upcoming change to assignments with the next two graduating classes starting

with Class 15-13. See the Request section at the end for student and IP intent going forward.

Situation: With the 18x RPA career field not at full capacity to reach manning requirements to fulfill current demands, the Air Force is in the process of re-posturing itself for enduring RPA operations. The decision has been made by the Chief of Staff to once again continue supplying rated pilots from UPT to fulfill RPA assignments. For the next year starting with the upcoming 15-13 class, there will be 2 RPA slots per assignable graduation class at each base (Columbus, Vance, and Laughlin) for a total of 6 RPAs per assignment class. These two assignments will be primarily sourced from T-1s due to fighter cockpit manning. While T-1s are the primary source, the exact ratio of T-1s to T-38s is unknown at this time.

Airframes: The Air Force flies three types of RPAs-the MQ-1 (Predator), the MQ-9 (Reaper) and the larger RQ-4 (Global Hawk). For the upcoming RPA assignments it is expected that the majority will be MQ-9s. The upcoming distribution for 15-13 will be 6 MQ-9s with 5 going to Creech and 1 going to Ellsworth. It is unknown if Columbus will get the Ellsworth location. Expect both locations to be on the drop sheets for 15-13.

Future for Manned Airframe Assignment: An official memo is currently being staffed to explain the details above, but more importantly it will document

the opportunity for UPT students who get this assignment the ability to transition to a manned cockpit if desired at the end of their RPA tour. As always the devil is in the details and we hope to have more information as the memo and program details unfold.

Background and Considerations: Please see below for a brief summary of RPA reality and where we have been.

Experience: Airmanship, decision-making and judgment only come with experience and RPA duty allows immediate real-world combat experience. The RPA MQT process is accomplished on actual combat sorties with actual weapons over actual friendlies and actual enemy. Experience employing weapons, integrating with ground forces, and handling emergencies start from day one. We are now at the point where RPA pilots are getting the most combat experience of anyone. RPA pilots fly more than three times as many hours per year as traditional pilots. The Predator alone flew the third most hours of any Air Force weapon system last year.

Impact and unique stressors: Ask anyone who has flown RPAs and there's a pride associated with flying them. Pilots get excited to contribute to a relevant, consequential mission almost from day one. It is undeniable that the RPA platform has a real, beneficial impact for deployed troops. Things are a little more personal in an RPA than in an aircraft that's up for just a few hours. But because of this there are unique stresses to flying an RPA. Life may be air conditioned and at home station, but unlike deployments where you come back home, as an RPA pilot you are always in theatre and then back home all in the same day. The lack of transition time between an up close personal mission and regular life takes some adjustment. Bottom line though, they love what they do, they love being a part of it.

Rapid CAP expansion and Manning: The challenge is usually not the mission but because of the reduced manning the community has seen. As with any

airframe the average load cannot go down unless they get healthier manning. It is no mystery that the Air Force has rapidly expanded its use of RPAs in the last decade to support combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Beyond the traditional intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability to analyze evolving battlefield conditions, the MQ-1 and the MQ-9 have been outfitted with missiles to strike targets, with equipment to designate targets for manned aircraft by laser, and with sensors to locate the positions of improvised explosive devices and moving insurgents, among other missions. As seen in the attached figure, demand has continued to increase and as such has outstripped the best laid plans to create and replace RPA pilots and thus the need to assign our UPT graduates to RPAs.

Timeline and how we got here: With the increased mission scope, the rate of CAP increase turned steeper in 2007. In 2007 those who wanted to return to

flying more traditional manned aircraft were required to stay in their RPA assignments for longer than a typical Air Force assignment. In 2008 these actions included lengthening the assignments of manned-aircraft pilots in RPA squadrons and then extending those assignments indefinitely. In 2009, the Air Force began assigning manned-aircraft training graduates to RPA assignments as their first assignment after completing Undergraduate Pilot Training. In 2010 the Air Force established an RPA pilot career field with a separate set of training requirements. These officers are qualified only to fly RPAs and are not qualified on Air Force manned aircraft. This is not the case with our graduates and again they will be offered the opportunity to come back to manned cockpits in the future. In 2011, the Air Force permanently recategorized around 475 manned-aircraft pilots who were generally serving at the ranks of major and lieutenant colonel to serve as permanent RPA pilots. Additional manned-aircraft pilots have been permanently recategorized as RPA pilots since 2011, and Air Force documentation shows a total of 545 recategorized manned-aircraft pilots. So realize it is not just limited to these UPT classes even those in their MWS careers are moving over to RPAs. Also, the RPA-only pilots are now coming up to the end of their initial commitment this year, and many will need to be replaced. The bottom line is that RPA duty is here to stay and has for the past 6-8 years been intricately tied with Pilot assignments both from UPT and from MWS and is not a new phenomenon.

Request: While assignment of UPT students to RPA duty started in 2009 and is not new, it is a new reality for the upcoming classes, so I request that both IPs and students be mindful of that. As most of us with many years of experience can attest, there is no standard path to what you want or can get in an Air Force career. Pilots in the past have been deferred or banked from pilot training becoming MX or supply officers to await training. Most every officer has received a duty position they knew nothing about or initially wanted that ended up being the most rewarding career position they ever had. The 19th Air Force Commander, General Hecker stated that his time at Creech was the most rewarding time of his career and that includes stints in the F-15C and F-22. In light of that, please refrain from spreading or creating false assumptions about RPA duty. It is not any IP or students job to entrench any misguided perceptions that may exist. Anyone with experience or firsthand knowledge with the airframes feel free to share that as desired as we would with any airframe, but I would ask that as Alleycat professionals we would not speculate or spread unverified information as this program takes shape.

Questions: As always if anyone has any questions or concerns please let us know and we will try to address them as best we can and promise to provide the full extent of available information as soon as we have it. Please funnel them through your respective flight commander and we will pass them up the chain. Additional details received over the comings weeks/months will be passed on as we receive the information. Several questions were asked this morning that are all still unknowns:

Unknown - If RPA career is chosen and opportunity to switch to manned cockpit is not taken, does this remove the opportunity of "aviation continuation pay," a benefit of up to $25,000 a year that's currently restricted to manned aircraft pilots only.

Unknown - Will the pilot commitment change if we are switched to an unmanned RPA career field or will the 10 year UPT commitment remain unchanged.

Unknown - Are we considered temporary RPA pilots or since this is a first assignment are we considered permanent RPA pilots? Will our AFSC change to 18X and at what point? Current distribution can be seen below but actual designation is currently unknown.

Unknown - How long does one tour consist of, are we talking 2,3,4 or maybe 6 years?

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[1969RPOL36]

Nice Kool Aid enema. I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. I can't believe they are still trying to sell this as a good deal.

[BFM this]

[...]

Situation: With the 18x RPA career field not at full capacity to reach manning requirements to fulfill current demands, the Air Force is in the process of re-posturing itself for enduring RPA operations.

[...]

The 19th Air Force Commander, General Hecker stated that his time at Creech was the most rewarding time of his career and that includes stints in the F-15C and F-22. In light of that, please refrain from spreading or creating false assumptions about RPA duty. It is not any IP or students job to entrench any misguided perceptions that may exist. Anyone with experience or firsthand knowledge with the airframes feel free to share that as desired as we would with any airframe, but I would ask that as Alleycat professionals we would not speculate or spread unverified information as this program takes shape.

Takeaways:

"This whole 18x concept is brand new--just stared last fiscal quarter, hasn't had time to mature, uhhh, rabble rabble rabble..."

"Thou shalt not speak ill of the boss's sacred cow"

"Seriously guys, even if you have experience in the field, if it's not along party lines, can it."

[Jaded]

I wonder what would happen if all 6 refused to sign the 10 year ADSC after drop night.

[Warrior]

You don't sign the adsc after drop night. It's been a few years but I'm pretty sure I had to sign the paperwork before starting UPT. And I went through in 08-09 when they started doing this the first time.

[MooseAg03]

I can't see Big Blue guaranteeing manned aircraft follow ons like they did last time. The exodus of UPT directs over the past 2 years took a lot of experience out of RPAs, and I don't believe they would follow the same path this go round. That just creates another void to be filled 4-5 years from now.

Anybody in this situation has to look at an RPA assignment out of UPT as a permanent RPA career. You may be able to sneak out and teach UPT later, but I don't believe they will pull these guys after one assignment and send them to a manned MWS. Each recipient of this shit sandwich will have to weigh all of their options and what is best for themselves and their family. I would have to say the time for Service Before Self has passed in this situation. How many times are we going to ask the young CGOs of our force to bear the burden of poor leadership and manning decisions? After spending 2+ years in the RPA world, if I was in that position right now of dropping an RPA, I would SIE as fast as I could and then retrain as finance/contracting/intel, serve my 4 years and peace out. You'll have a much better chance to fly real airplanes outside of the Air Force. Or you may open doors to other career options without incurring a 10 year commitment to rot inside a GCS.

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[bbj77]

Besides some unique personal reason to list these first on a drop list, I guess this should be motivation enough to not finish last in your UPT class.

[LookieRookie]

I can't see Big Blue guaranteeing manned aircraft follow ons like they did last time. The exodus of UPT directs over the past 2 years took a lot of experience out of RPAs, and I don't believe they would follow the same path this go round. That just creates another void to be filled 4-5 years from now.

Anybody in this situation has to look at an RPA assignment out of UPT as a permanent RPA career. You may be able to sneak out and teach UPT later, but I don't believe they will pull these guys after one assignment and send them to a manned MWS. Each recipient of this shit sandwich will have to weigh all of their options and what is best for themselves and their family. I would have to say the time for Service Before Self has passed in this situation. How many times are we going to ask the young CGOs of our force to bear the burden of poor leadership and manning decisions? After spending 2+ years in the RPA world, if I was in that position right now of dropping an RPA, I would SIE as fast as I could and then retrain as finance/contracting/intel, serve my 4 years and peace out. You'll have a much better chance to fly real airplanes outside of the Air Force. Or you may open doors to other career options without incurring a 10 year commitment to rot inside a GCS.

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Not to mention making 11Us permanently 18Xs takes away the option to jump ship to airlines at 10 years. Sure it opens up RPA jobs but all the 18Xs with 6 year commits will be snagging those.

[Ram]

While you can't refute the facts of that memo, it is full Kool-Aid.

Never go full Kool-Aid.

Maybe this is why I'll never be a wing commander, as I can't see myself writing something like that without wanting to immediately walk to the parking lot to suck-start a shotgun in my car due to the cognitive dissonance.

The RPA community needs bodies, and it's what our nation's leadership has deemed our new reality. That is fine. However, do we need to sell it as a good deal? Our young LTs can read between the lines of that memo a mile away. If our young pups aren't smart enough to read between the lines and spot the "company message" being spouted, do we really want them as officers in our Air Force?

Unknown - If RPA career is chosen and opportunity to switch to manned cockpit is not taken, does this remove the opportunity of "aviation continuation pay," a benefit of up to $25,000 a year that's currently restricted to manned aircraft pilots only.
Unknown - Will the pilot commitment change if we are switched to an unmanned RPA career field or will the 10 year UPT commitment remain unchanged.
Unknown - Are we considered temporary RPA pilots or since this is a first assignment are we considered permanent RPA pilots? Will our AFSC change to 18X and at what point? Current distribution can be seen below but actual designation is currently unknown.
Unknown - How long does one tour consist of, are we talking 2,3,4 or maybe 6 years?

The fact that these questions don't have official answers is a major fucking foul on the part of A1, IMHBAO. We've only been thinking about how to fix this manning problem for...uh...almost 10 years.

[guineapigfury]

If a UPT graduate recats, they become an 11U not an 18X. 11Us are eligible for the expanded ACP (25k per year with half upfront).

[MooseAg03]

Or if you don't take the wings, choose to go 18X then you'll only have a 6 year commitment. It's one of the biggest gripes I have, going to work every day and doing the same job next to guys with a 40% shorter ADSC.

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[snoopyeast]

You don't sign the adsc after drop night. It's been a few years but I'm pretty sure I had to sign the paperwork before starting UPT. And I went through in 08-09 when they started doing this the first time.

I signed 3 of them. For a few years, the AF had the one I signed in ROTC in the system and that's what showed up as my ADSC expiration. They caught it eventually, but it was fun to dream in the meantime.

[xcraftllc]

I hate to see stuff like this, it's not just failure of leadership but failure to be descent human beings with sound morals. It's not a service-before-self issue and I hate hearing that rhetoric. This topic came up in the Track Selects and Assignment Nights thread, this is what I had to say about it:

"It's pretty unnerving reading this thread. I'm very relieved that I went guard when I made the switch to the AF. Army flight school was stressful, and I managed to come out on top and get what I want, but at least I didn't have to worry about stuff like this!

The Army doesn't do very many things right with regards to aviation, but one of the things it nailed is the way it handles its UAS (RPA) program. The program always was, is, and always will be completely separate from regular flight school, and the operators are enlisted. That's not to say they let any old joe fly a Grey Eagle, they have high standards for applicants (they are also always under the supervision of a "Mission Commander" type officer).

Here's the reality:

For an enlisted guy, flying a drone is cool, something to be proud of. If they get to do it, they feel accomplished and will likely continue to serve. No one goes to the Academy or puts all their life's time, money, and energy into getting into flight school to go RPA. This is a life commitment, we grew up our whole lives dreaming about flying and working hard to earn a career in the field. Say what you will about "patriotic duty" this, or "just happy to serve your country's needs" that; it's not ok to take someone who devoted their life to being able to fly, send them to flight school, and then pull the carpet out from underneath them and give them RPAs, even if it's only a temporary assignment.

WRT guard/reserve help; I agree with making the guard/reserve units that are already flying drones more active in order to fill gaps but converting guard/reserve fighter units would eliminate the only place in the AF that high-time guys are willing to keep flying after their initial commitment is over, and the AF is already horribly short in that area. We're basically a Total Force now and one of the only ways that the AF has been able to stop some of its best pilots from leaving is by letting them palace chase to guard units. The guard is more active than ever, and the AF cannot meet its mission requirements without the help.

As far as to how even just temporary assignments affect retention, someone did an interesting survey on the subject. Note the timing; about two years prior to the huge 11F shortage and bonus offerings:

"

[HU&W]

TIME mag:

You can up your salary by $15,000 by taking this job

If you’ve ever thought it would be cool to join the military, the United States Air Force is sweetening the deal, offering a $15,000 per year bonus to people who sign up to be drone pilots for either five or nine years.

The plan is being implemented due to a shortage of drone pilots, according to The Wall Street Journal. The offer is available to existing Air Force Pilots, although the Journal also notes that 80 pilots graduating flight school this year will be automatically placed in the corps of drone pilots.

The United States has used drones for both airstrikes and surveillance throughout the world. The Obama administration’s use of drones in the “War on Terror” has garnered ferocious criticism from both sides of the political aisle, but if this program is any indication, the mechanization of war looks to be something that will expand, not recede.

One other change that could be made to expand the pool of drone pilots would be to allow enlisted airmen, rather than just officers, to pilot drones. As of now, that’s not happening.