I know I’m preaching to the choir here but even for a decent pilot it takes numerous hacks at landings and A/R in a heavy aircraft before they’re even remotely close to safe. And this talking about a winged pilot who has flown UPT fingertip/CT/fluid maneuvering and then done all that stuff again in the FTU as well.

The scope of the upgrade required here is to bring the WSOs up to speed is basically just.. pilot training.

This is an idiotic and borderline suicidal idea enshrined by a 4-star who was on their way out the door and in search of a silver bullet to fix their self-inflicted manning problems. Probably the suckiest part is that when it’s inevitably walked back the WSO union is going to feel even more betrayed and sidelined than they already do now. And then we’ll be back to square one where there’s still no plan of what to do with them.

I know, and am friends with, several great dudes who are WSOs. They’re also smart and very capable human beings. That said, get rid of their positions in totality as aircraft advancements allow. There’s good reason we don’t have FEs on airliners anymore or navs on almost all aircraft models. There was absolutely a time and place, but those days are long gone. Stop trying to force a square peg into a round hole. They all need to accept this fact and move on…

• retire/get out early and transition to civ employment

• Shift to a different AFSC

• USAF reduce WSO production commensurate with current WSO-required aircraft retirements

• Stop trying to stupidly argue WSOs are required on new aircraft

Brabus for CSAF.

I guess I'm in the minority on this one. I rather have a WSO than second pilot in the B-21. Even in the long-range strike scenarios the bomber bros are pushing back against. Most are using the B-2 community as the blueprint for B-21 dynamics. That's a mistake (for a couple reasons).

I always felt I had more in common with strike WSOs as a B-2 dude. Hell, I even called the "Mission Commander" position the "Pilot-WSO". B-2 employment was weird - at times the MC was a WSO, and at times it was a co-pilot. Further complicated by either the Pilot or MC could be the AC.

I say make the B-21 community mirror the F-15E community as far as crew dynamic. I'm for the WSO in the B-21 - it'll make better pilots too. And WSOs don't need some special WSO course to AR and Land. A f-ing pilot can do that - with smart crew dynamics that "unofficially" teaches WSOs to land, AR, etc.

Otherwise - Biff was right - go all in with 2x WSOs!