US Air Force Reporting Pilot Shortage

An anonymous reader writes "Times sure have changed: it is no longer cool to be a fighter pilot. The Pentagon expects to be short some 200 fighter pilots this year, and is projecting that shortfall will increase to 700 pilots by 2021. Various factors seem to be involved: better paying jobs in the commercial sector with more stability, the stress of repeated overseas deployments, and the threat that ultimately the job they trained to do — fly planes — is being superseded by remotely-controlled drones. With demand for commercial aviators heating up as thousands of pilots are expected to reach mandatory retirement age (65) in the next five years, the Air Force is caught in a quandary. Where are they going to get the pilots to fly their shiny new F-35s?"

Too little time in the air

[Milharis]

I don't know if that's as true as in Europe, but the biggest complain I've heard by far from would-be pilots as well as pilots is that they don't fly enough. A flight is so costly that they don't fly more than a few times a month.

What's rather funny though is that in Europe the situation is reverted, there are far more people that want to become a pilot, fighter or commercial, than jobs available. A lot of airlines have totally frozen hiring for a few years.

Re:PIlots don't make much

[Spy Handler]

nobody flies fighter jets in the Air Force and then goes on to fly for regional carriers for $25k a year. Those regional carrier jobs are filled by entry level pilots that graduated Bob's Flying School who are looking to build up their flight hours and beef up their resume in hopes of eventually flying for the majors.

Air Force pilots leaving the military are in high demand at the majors as they have thousands of hours in jets and typically have exceptional flying skills compared to Bob's Flying School graduates.

Amazing!

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean telling pilots that they can't go to school or be released for staff jobs, because they are needed in Afghanistan 6 months of the year then laying them off because they haven't been to school or a staff job wasn't the best way to handle manning. Next you will be telling me that we should start giving medals to people who do things in combat instead of to people who do things in PowerPoint. Because of several factors, in the U.S. we are rapidly moving to a combat Air Force with leadership who have never flown in combat. My last 2 squadron commanders have yet to see the desert. And I recently talked to some U-2 guys who's squadron commander wasn't even qualified in the jet. (He failed out of training, but still kept his command slot) Right now if you want to get promoted in the USAF you simply cannot waste time on things as trivial as flying, and if you don't get promoted, you get fired. BTW Sorry for posting anonymously, but it is easier than having to explain this to Public Affairs.

Re:I'll gladly do it

[Joshua Craymer]

Actually, that's kind of what happened to me. I was just an EE with thick glasses and bad hair, but through an unlikely series of events, I ended up as a test subject to see if people with laser vision correction could effectively fly military aircraft. 10 years later, it turns out they can.

Re: F35 and F22

[Mabhatter]

Of 22 yo kids CARE ABOUT that stuff?

Truth is that for decades flying has been packed with incumbents not moving out. In 2002 if you went to a recruiter and wanted to fly you'd be laughed at... The best enlisted folks would ever get is cargo planes anyway. To fly fighters, you have to be an officer...it's not like the old days where just anybody could try out. And who is going to Military Academy (Annapolis, West Point, Colorado Springs) for a dead-end airline career?

Not to mention the physical attributes are outright bigoted... They haven't updated planes from 5'8" pilots (MAX HEIGHT) in decades, which means your High School average sports star doesn't even get asked. And that's before the other physical exclusions...

They've been elitist brats for 40 years and there's nobody left to play in their club. Besides, drones are where it's at and the skills favor geeks, not jocks.

2006 RAND study recommending fewer fighter pilots

[Animats]

"Fighter Drawdown Dynamics: Effects on Aircrew Inventories" [defencetalk.com] - a 2009 study from RAND, says "to maintain the health of fighter units, the number of new pilots entering them must be reduced, ultimately to below 200 per year by 2016." Fighter pilots are high-maintenance - they have to fly frequently to stay good. Having too many fighter pilots for the number of available aircraft results in a big pool of mediocre pilots.

The USAF seems to be having trouble balancing their personnel pipeline.

Re:The more likely reason

[Nidi62]

I worked with a couple people that were hoping to become pilots with the Air Force. Instead of enlisting into the Air Force proper, however, they went into the Air National Guard. The main reason was that, in the Air Force, once you go through flight school you essentially get assigned an aircraft type (based on ranking and possibly a little on personal preference). With ANG, you go into it as a pilot already knowing what aircraft you are going to fly: you go around to different squadrons and they have to sponsor you, almost like rushing a fraternity. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of it.

Re:Obvious Solution

[mapsjanhere]

There's a real problem for the air force brass behind all this. Pilots are all "officers and gentlemen", drones are flown by enlisted people. Any large swing to more drones not only changes the combat environment, it changes the whole structure of the force. If you no longer have a large collection of ex-fighter jocks to staff your higher ranks with, the whole attitude of the air force as we know it will change in the long run.

Re:F35 and F22

[Rich0]

Bring the warthog, the only useful plane in the US Air Force's inventory in the last 30 years.

The A10 is a great plane, and it would be wonderful if there were other aircraft to fill the niche. However, it does need support to operate. You're not going to be having a great time shooting up tanks if the sky is crawling with enemy air-superiority fighters who have free reign to drop missiles on you all day long. You can duck behind hills from SAM sites, but not when the SAM site is at 37,000 feet.

It's no longer honorable

[Rubinhood]

I heard that people no longer enlist to the armed forces anymore because it's no longer the noble thing to do. They have too much precedent that they will just become toys of corrupt politicians.

They can see how many have ended up helping the slaughter of a million innocent civilians in the Middle-East. Others helped with the assassination of legitimate leaders who genuinely cared for their country, and installed puppet dictators who were willing to help maintain the Empire while pushing their own citizens to poverty. Yet others ended up regularly spying on half the world...

Apart from 5-year-old children who were mesmerized by the latest G.I. Joe or other propaganda film, I don't know anyone in their right mind who would willingly sign up to be such a puppet.

(Now cue the obligatory government agent trying to sway public opinion in a response post:)