Air Force Community - Air Force Times

Pilots deserve latest news

Different warfare demands and more grounded planes mean the Air Force needs fewer fighter pilots.

Seats in the fighter/bomber training track are being cut by 100 this year and more cuts could be coming in the years ahead as the Air Force goes through a sig¬nificant transition period in its air combat fleet.

The fate of more than 300 F-15 Eagles and F-16 Fighting Falcons is up in the air as Congress weighs whether to retire them. The Air Force, meanwhile, is robustly building up its UAV mission and assigning increasing numbers of pilots to that program as it increas¬es the number of prop aircraft to go operational and eyes adding more than 1,600 F-35 Joint Strike Fight¬ers in the years ahead.

All these moves make sense, but for student pilots who entered the Air Force with dreams of fly¬ing a fighter jet, putting them on hold or perhaps scuttling them al¬together is a painful prospect. the Air Force should lay out for future pilots a worst-case scenario for 2010 and beyond to give them a realistic view of whether they should hold on to aspirations of flying fighters or reconcile them¬selves to flying transports, heli¬copters, UAVs or other aircraft.

Maintainers need to get the word about slot shifts, too, because they drive the need for retraining and relocating, and affect other news central to the airmen’s lives.

From Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz on down, Air Force leaders should be as open as pos¬sible with student pilots and maintainers about their futures. They deserve to know as soon as the Air Force does if a tour is going to be extended or fighter training falls through or planes are being retired.

It’s only fair. Careers are on the line.