RPA woes

[MigBuster 2,879]

A type of combat flight simming you get paid for but it doesn't seem to be much fun.

 

 

 

Who will pilot unmanned aircraft is becoming an issue

 

 

In 2012, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh wondered aloud about what to do with MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft  when they returned from Afghanistan. “I don’t know what we’re going to do with them,” he mused at a press briefing. “Buying more right now might not make any sense.”

 

Fast-forward to 2016: The Air Force, still under the leadership of Welsh, is in the midst of a full-scale effort to expand its remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) force—and reduce the morale problems that have plagued it since the earliest days of the Predator in the early 1990s.

 

Once seen largely as a niche capability for counterinsurgency warfare, the service’s unmanned-aircraft force has a new lease on life thanks to the rise of the Islamic State group, a resurgent Russia, and the Obama administration’s decision to fully exploit the political advantages of an air asset that can conduct clandestine strikes in places such as Pakistan without risking the lives of aircrew. 

 

The relentless demand for this capability has forced the Air Force to acknowledge the need for a long-term strategy to grow its RPA workforce. The service has been losing more unmanned-aircraft pilots than it trains; about 250 leave while about 150 are pushed through the training pipeline annually. The shortage puts tremendous strain on the existing force. RPA pilots fly for six days, conduct nonflying duties for one day, and then receive two days off.

 

“Every combatant commander wants you,” Gen. Welsh told RPA crews during a March visit to Creech AFB in Nevada. “But you also understand the strain it inflicts.”

 

To relieve some of the pressure on aircrews—and prevent the situation from deteriorating further over the next decade as it boosts unmanned-aircraft combat air patrols (CAP) to 70 from 60—the Air Force in 2015 launched an effort known as the “RPA Get Well Plan.”

 

Central to that are plans to increase the number of RPA pilots trained to more than 400 a year by 2019. The pipeline has historically been constrained by the limited number of qualified unmanned-aircraft instructors that can be pulled away from ongoing combat operations. The Pentagon’s decision to allow the Air Force to fall back to 60 from 65 CAPs in 2015 created some breathing room, and under the Get Well Plan the Air Force intends to improve the training infrastructure at Holloman AFB in New Mexico to support the throughput increase.

 

The Get Well Plan also includes controversial proposals such as the use of contractors to fly unmanned aircraft, a decision that has raised complicated legal and moral questions about the role of civilians in combat. Separately, the Air Force announced in December 2015 that it would allow enlisted pilots to fly the RQ-4 Global Hawk starting in late 2016 or early 2017, with a possibility of expanding their role to the Predator and Reaper in the future.

 

Another major focus of the plan is an increase in aviation incentive pay to attract and retain RPA pilots. During a March Senate hearing, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) complained the Air Force had failed to allocate congressionally authorized $35,000 retention bonuses for unmanned aircraft pilots, instead capping incentive pay at $25,000, commensurate with the manned aircraft pilot community. Welsh countered that he plans to work with lawmakers to introduce legislation this year that would increase aviation incentive pay for both manned and unmanned aircraft to $35,000 a year.

 

In addition to these policy changes, the service launched a Culture and Process Improvement Program (CPIP) in 2015 to address cultural inhibitors to RPA force development. Low morale has been a pervasive problem in the community, largely due to the fact that a majority of RPA crews are former manned aircraft pilots who did not volunteer for the assignment. A study of 114 RPA pilots and sensor operators for the Air Force’s professional journal found that crews often felt they were perceived as “second-class citizens.” The CPIP heard  that phrase “over and over again” from RPA pilots, according to interview results obtained by Aviation Week.

 

The CPIP made a series of recommendations to improve RPA pilot morale after conducting nearly 2,000 face-to-face interviews and more than 1,000 electronic surveys. In response to the findings, Welsh announced in December that the Air Force would pursue a $3 billion plan, subject to congressional approval, to respond to the concerns of overworked RPA crews.

 

The plan proposed adding 75 Reapers to the current fleet of 175 Reapers and 150 Predators and adding 3,500 new RPA pilots, sensor operators and other enlisted personnel. The service also announced plans to increase the number of unmanned aircraft squadrons and to stand up a new wing to complement the only existing one, currently located at Creech.

 

It remains unclear whether the Air Force’s plans to boost unmanned aircraft capacity will effectively institutionalize high-demand RPA capability in something more than an ad hoc fashion. While David Deptula, chief of Air Force intelligence in 2006-10 and a major RPA advocate, says the service’s proposals represent an “appropriate effort,” he cautions it is “too early to say” whether they will actually deliver meaningful change. 

 

 

 

http://aviationweek.com/defense/usaf-wrestles-remotely-piloted-aircraft-workforce-issues?NL=AW-05&Issue=AW-05_20160415_AW-05_105&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2&utm_rid=CPEN1000001360373&utm_campaign=5608&utm_medium=email&elq2=99e9cb9a7f5f45a5bda006b31910cfec

 

 

 

 

[Stratos 3,186]

Pretty interesting, read something about morale problems before, but never tought it was a problem with number of enlisted pilots.