UAV pilot career field could save $1.5B - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

UAV pilot career field could save $1.5B

Having specifically trained airmen rather than manned aircraft pilots fly unmanned aerial vehicles could save $1.5 billion over the next six years, an Air Force audit found.

The report, released in December by the service’s Audit Agency and obtained in February by Air Force Times through a Freedom of Information Act request, recommends establishing a career field for UAV pilots and developing a cadre of experienced UAV pilots, instructors and weapon system experts.

Auditors estimate the Air Force would save at least $500,000 per pilot if it revamped its training programs. Today, a manned aircraft pilot completes undergraduate and graduate pilot training programs. The service spends more than $2.6 million to train a fighter pilot. Training for an airlift pilot, relatively speaking, is far less — about $600,000.

The audit recommends “eliminating 20 unnecessary weeks of the current undergraduate pilot training program, deleting unnecessary graduate training on other aircraft,” and adding an eight-week UAV undergraduate course and 12 weeks of UAV graduate training. The cost, the report estimates, would be a little more than $135,000 per pilot.

Air Force leaders weren’t surprised by the findings and were rethinking UAV pilot training long before the audit was released, said Col. Scott Forest, deputy chief, operational training division.

In September, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz unveiled plans to create a UAV-specific career field and to train officers with no flying experience to control Predators and Reapers.

“We were implementing the recommendations of this report months before it came out following in the chief’s guidance and his decisions,” Forest said.

Predator and Reaper flight hours have jumped in the past three years. Predator flights nearly doubled last year, according to the Air Force. UAV orbits over Iraq and Afghanistan — or around-the-clock combat air patrols — have gone from 11 in 2007 to 33 in 2009. Plans call for 50 CAPs by 2011.

Air Force leaders had to temporarily assign manned aircraft pilots to handle the higher number of flights. In 2008, 161 fighter, bomber, tanker and cargo pilots flew Predators and Reapers, the two UAV models.

The consequence of shifting the pilots has been a drain on the experience level at manned aircraft squadrons, said Brig. Gen. Lyn D. Sherlock, former director of air operations for operations, plans and requirements at the Pentagon.

“This condition occurred because Air Force officials did not anticipate the rapid growth of UAS programs, increase in worldwide CAP requirements, or the corresponding high demand for UAS [unmanned aerial system] pilots,” according to the report.

UAV assignments have also left 78 percent of non-UAV “ALFA tour” positions empty. An ALFA tour is a temporary midcareer assignment for pilots such as an air liaison, flight instructor or UAV pilot.

The open slots led auditors to conclude that Air Force leaders “did not appropriately consider the adverse impacts of using ALFA tour pilots or the costs the Air Force could avoid by implementing a UAS-specific career path and training program.”

In January, 10 officers with zero flight hours kick-started the Air Force’s effort at creating a career field for UAV pilots.

The officers are the first to go through the training program designed to get officers who didn’t complete undergraduate pilot training into UAV cockpits. They will finish training this fall and receive their UAV wings.

Forest described officials and trainers as “happy with the progress” by the first class.

Another 10 officers will start training this summer and will get their UAV wings in January, at which point the Air Force will decide if it wants to expand the training pipeline, Sherlock said.

“Developing a UAS-specific career path and eliminating unnecessary training will reduce costs by more than $1.5 billion with aviation fuel savings alone accounting for about $180 million — making funds available for other flying training or war effort requirements,” according to the report.

Related reading

• UAV graduate school opens