The Los Angeles Times’ Julian E. Barnes reports that the Air Force “is preparing to graduate its first pilots of unmanned drones from the elite U.S. Air Force Weapons School — a version of the Navy’s Top Gun program — in a bid to elevate the skills and status of the officers who fly Predators, one of the military’s fastest growing aircraft programs.“
The article goes on to state that “until recently, pilots would work on the Predators and Reapers, then return to their assigned aircraft. But the Air Force would like officers to make a career out of flying unmanned craft and become experts at operating the drones.”
Nothing like a new fork in the career matrix to keep a military career interesting. But what kind of self-respecting fighter jock would voluntarily take off his speed jeans and strap on a laptop for the rest of his time in uniform? No more Gs? No more sucking back the O-2?
The article also quotes a couple of future generals:
“It is safe to say most pilots will always miss getting back in the air,” said Lt. Col. Daniel “D.J.” Turner, who leads the Predator and Reaper training at the weapons school. “But we see where the Air Force is going. We understand we are adding to the mission in a crucial way.“
“I would love to go back and fly,” said Maj. Geoff Fukumoto, a F-15 pilot nicknamed “Admiral” who was one of the first to go through the Air Force Weapons School for the Predator and Reaper. “But I think I have found the place the Air Force needs me. Right now, I am committed to this job.”
Okay, DJ and Admiral. The Chief of Staff and SECAF thank you … along with your fellow Eagle drivers who will be flying those sorties (in a jet, not at a console) you opted out of. We’ll be seeing you in the movies. Er, maybe not.
Read the entire LA Times article here.
– Ward
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks to United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who pushed them crying and screaming.
Ward, you are such a brown shoe. I bet you cried when they turned you guys from Tomcats to Bombcats.
No, I was good with dropping bombs, DC2. I cried when they turned our Tomcats into Super Hornets, though . . .
UAVs and UCAVs should be used to supplement manned aircraft, not fully replace them. I don’t know what Gates thinks he is doing, but the USAF needs both manned and unmanned.
Several movies have already portrayed armed drone operators. For example, Sleep Dealer (2008) and Eagle Eye (2008). Eagle Eye and the Terminator movies, of course, later have the computers going all Hal 9000 on us and taking over the armed drones eventually.
It seems weird to criticize top pilots who are willing to undertake the mission assigned to them with a high level of pride and commitment.
Were all the Air Force folks who weren’t pilots and did their jobs “opting out” as well?
Pretty lame critique, seems like you would want the best people doing the newest jobs, and nothing will enhance the prestige of the rather unglamorous work of flying drones more than having pilots doing the job during its break-in phase.
In short, most military people would love to be pilots, and these pilots are sacrificing that to do a new and unglamorous job out of sense of duty. And they get your derision.
Great.
“But what kind of self-respecting fighter jock would voluntarily take off his speed jeans and strap on a laptop for the rest of his time in uniform? No more Gs? No more sucking back the O-2?”
Pilot’s who can’t get a real plane, or don’t have 2020 vision?
“Air Force looks to keep more pilots grounded”
http://www.mysanantonio.com/military/36612904.html
I’m talking about Eagle pilots, Drake 1. Not anybody else. And abject funk, is it a sense of duty or a sense of upward career mobility? I suggest the best of the best aren’t in a hurry to walk away from their community. The faces in the ready room crowd might be.
I happen to agree with you Ward…I’m just having some fun with the topic at hand. I have loads and loads of links attesting to what you are saying.
Ward, so what happens when they get rid of you RIOs altogether with the JSF? I guess we now know where the wanna be UAV pilots will be culled from. I can see it now:
“yep I used to be a back seat driver in one of them thar super hornets. Now I get to fly one of them UCAVs off the deck with my laptop in the wardroom.”
OK…time to take this seriously. UAVs are a separate career track as of now, so Ward is correct in a ways. Pilots who have been forced to fly unmanned will not suddenly choose to specialize in this field.
Therefore this Top Gun UAV School is only for the best of the best that elected to be in the UAV track.
Cenobyte,
He was in a fast mover (F-14) and that is why he is making this post. This post is part fun of UAV pilots and part fact in how this is going on.
You guys get your panties in a wad over some dumb stuff, especially when you can’t read sarcasm and humor into a story.
This is the same commentary from you guys as when he wrote about Aussie pilots finally finding a way to win in a dogfight: develop a missile that will shoot down the fighter on your six.
I don’t know what the word Luddite means (and I frankly don’t care), but a little levity would be better.
Geez. Does it take a squid to understand a squid or something?
DC2
You guys need to relax, its the same thing you say to your friend when he trades in his Porsche for a minivan when he has kids.
If Ward was trying to be silly here and add some humor then I appologize to Ward. However, in the future he should be aware that sacasm does not work well in print.
I “get” the humor, but feel obligated to register discomfort with this increased shift from manned to unmanned. Whatever works at least cost to lives and treasure is what the American people will support in wartime. If that means a drone, do it. Breed them like rabbits. As many as we need.
Still, there’s something about a fighter pilot…the kind that’s actually IN the plane. Public support for any military operation is as critical as the weaponry used, and fighter pilots are quick and ready heros that we the people can understand and be bolstered by. And with society’s dearth of manliness these days, why turn away from one treasure trove of it? Granted, it’s not fair to equally excellent drone pilots, but they’ll no doubt be creating their own unique culture.
Yes and there was something about REALLY big guns on a ship. Lets not love our battleships too long.
As for Bombcat to Super Horner, I bet Ward did not mind the 25 hours of maintenance I did to keep him flying. (Note: This is sarcasm. For Cenobyte)
I still find it funny that the Army flies them safer with enlisted guys than the Air Force does with officers.
Seems the officers expect to land the craft themselves where the Army guys lets the computer do the landing. So the Air Force crashes more of them……
A luddite is someone who is against technology replacing human work with machines.
My last CO was a RIO. In the end it is not about the technological platform. It is about decision making.
The question is; How much education and intelligence do you need to remotely control an aircraft?
Where an officer was (and is) needed in the planes when they are manned due to the life and death decisions they had to make in seconds in the air; With unmanned aircraft you can have ten enlisted pilots in a room controlling craft and an officer standing behind them making those hard decisions.
The enlisted pilots just have to have the ability to fly well and handle stress. And execute orders in a timely fashion.
Ward, I see your point in that this might be career oriented and not duty oriented. That said, given the manned/unmanned divide in opinion, as well as the clear unmanned focus in the future, it seems like a good idea to try different things to blur the distinction (as in, having former pilots in charge of unmanned vehicles). This of course assumes that the Air Force will be deeply involved in unmanned missions, and also assumes that there is in fact good things to be had with former pilots flying unmanned aircraft. These assumptions may be wrong, which I freely admit.
In any event, I think efforts should be encouraged to mitigate that inevitable turf wars that occur when new stuff (better or worse) comes on the scene and the “old” masters of what was until then the best technology naturally feel threatened. This is especially true when the new stuff is unmanned and relies almost totally on technology, not operators (missiles vs. guns, as mentioned above). I imagine a current infatuation with technology will backtrack later as it becomes clear what its limits are (again, missiles vs. guns, especially in the fighter plane context). Until that happens, I’d prefer a situation where people familiar with the capabilities and limitations of both platforms are the ones doing the flying.
Thanks for responding to my comment, which upon reflection, was a bit on the flip side.
UAVs support the teams on the ground in Afghanistan.
A UAV gets shot down, you don’t have to waste time sending a rescue team out to recover the guy/gal.
UAVs can loiter (and loiter some more). Theoretically, fresh flight crews on the ground can rotate at the controls until the UAV’s fuel runs out (Years in case of Global Hawk, which is recon only).
Teams on the ground don’t need to roll the dice calling in some “live driver” who’s been amped on Dexedrine for the last 12 hours and who’ll “hopefully” miss the friendlies.
US and allied Combat fighter/attack pilots certainly rock and are a highly skilled elite. But these days their only peer competition is basically… themselves.
As such, civilians probably view fighter pilots/planes these days as kind of like an NFL team in a League of 1: “Yeah its fun to hear of their “practices” and “scrimmages,” but the last air-to-air “game day” was, what, 1990-91?”
My advice to fighter/attack pilots, all the military, fast-moving, “live drivers” in combat jets: Go in to business manufacturing one and two seat super-sonic jets for the civilian market-place. That’s where you’ll see renewed appreciation for your skills and know-how.
AF promotion boards will have no problem distinguishing airborne pilots from desktop pilots.
Guess which pilot-flavor will totally dominate senior ranks.
My money is on the butthole boys (& girls) to occupy the senior ranks of the AF.
some thoughs from another blog
http://defense-and-freedom.blogspot.com/2009/06/will-5th-be-last-manned-fighter.html
“The next great challenge in air war will not be about complex fighters and bombers; it will be about drones of one pound to few hundred kilograms weight.”
“Miniaturized low level air war will be completely new and probably surprisingly low-level. Classic air superiority is here equally irrelevant as in space. Any country with some electronics companies could participate. There will be air-air, air-ground and recce drones.”
Fighter pilots and Predator drivers use distinct and separate skills. A driver of drones never feels G’s, sits is a chair playing a real-world video game. Todays kids do that for hours at home on today’s software.
Its time for the AF to use and grow both types of skill sets in the separate weapons systems.
It really IS a waste of talent and money for fighter pilots to do what many non-flyers can do.
I agree with Paul. The AF needs to get its officer corp out of the UAV business and turn the button mashing over to the enlisted ranks. They already to that with other vital technical fields (aircraft maintenance, air traffic control, etc).
This would let their officers focus on their core competencies – chiefly providing leadership, planning social events, polishing their OPRs and playing golf.
Cenobyte – I get your use of “luddite” but you clearly assume that the “man in the loop” concept is no longer applicable. You may be right at some point, but that day is more distant than you might expect. This is probably a good thing.
I don’t see Ward’s comments as disrespectful to the men and women of the services at all (excepting a slight tweak at the new USAF desk-only patch-wearers).
Barnacle Bob – your comment, “Teams on the ground don’t need to roll the dice calling in some “live driver” who’s been amped on Dexedrine for the last 12 hours and who’ll “hopefully” miss the friendlies.” assumes that computers can avoid blue-on-blue better than humans. That’s a huge assumption and hasn’t been shown to be true in any technology we’ve advanced so far. If you have contrary evidence, pony up!
I don’t have a problem with wo/man in the loop at all. I think until technology advances significantly it would be unwise to say the least to remove that wo/man from the loop.
However the bashing of the UAV pilots and not being really pilots that Ward regularly does, leaves me to believe that he has real problems with advancement in technology. Honestly it feels like he thinks that UAVs are going to take way the jobs of ‘real pilots’, a very Luddite way of thinking.
I think Ward BTW is a pretty smart guy from reading the stuff he has posted, but I am forced to disagree with him on his apparent assesment of UAVs and the wo/men that run them.
I just have to laugh at calling a fighter pilot (or, uh, sorry, Naval Aviator), a Luddite.
I can imagine situations where having drones as a force multiplier could be extremely useful. There’s no doubt that they’re a great recon platform.
Can’t shake the feeling, though, that this ‘unmanned’ stuff is mainly about having our wars without the coffins coming home. That just ain’t gonna work.
Let us not forget why we build all these machines – manned and unmanned. We build and fly them to defend the USA and its interests. Period.
Use the unmanned platforms if they do the job. Use a combined manned and unmanned force if needed to do the job, but never forget the reason for the job.
Sometimes it sounds like ego is the driving force behind folk’s positions and I don’t know if that is such a good idea, but I figure most will do the right thing. Of course, that don’t mean they gotta be happy about it if it means they gotta stop flying.