[ap.google.com] Scrambling to meet commanders‘ insatiable demands
for unmanned aircraft, the Air Force is launching two new training
programs, including an experimental one that would churn out up to
1,100 desperately needed pilots to fly the drones over Iraq and
Afghanistan.
As many as 700 Air Force personnel have expressed
some interest in the test program, which will create a new brand of
pilot for the drones, which are flown by remote control from a base in
Nevada. That new drone operator will learn the basics of flying a small
manned plane, but will not go through the longer, more rigorous
training that their fighter jet brethren receive.
A senior Air
Force officer told The Associated Press that by the end of September
2011, the goal is to have 50 unmanned combat air patrols operating 24
hours a day, largely over Iraq and Afghanistan. Currently there are 30.
To
generate the pilots for the increased flights, the Air Force hopes to
create separate pilot pipelines for its manned and unmanned aircraft,
said Col. Curt Sheldon, assistant to the director of air operations for
unmanned aircraft issues.
"I don’t know that you could ever get
(a drone) to everybody who wants one," Sheldon said. "I believe it is
virtually insatiable. We are pedaling fast, we are working hard to meet
that need."
Besides the new test program, Sheldon said the Air
Force is planning to shift about 100 manned-aircraft pilots directly
from training into jobs flying the drones. The unmanned aircraft are
mostly Predators — hunter-killer planes that fly in the war zone but
are operated by pilots sitting at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.
Until
now, Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) pilots have had to complete at least
one tour of flight duty before moving to the drone jobs.
The
urgent push for more drone pilots has been spurred by blunt demands
from Defense Secretary Robert Gates. He has criticized the Air Force’s
failure to move more quickly to meet war commanders‘ needs. And he set
up a task force in April to find more innovative ways to get the
aircraft to the battlefield more quickly.
Predators are playing a
crucial role on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, providing
real-time surveillance video to troops on the ground, targeting and
firing Hellfire anti-tank missiles at militants, and homing in on enemy
efforts to plant roadside bombs.
Earlier this year, for example,
a Predator — probably one operated by the CIA — fired on a suspected
terrorist safehouse in Pakistan’s north Waziristan region, killing Abu
Laith al-Libi, a key al-Qaida leader.
To date, the Air Force has
been using experienced fighter pilots to operate the drones. But as the
demand has skyrocketed, the service has struggled to find enough pilots
to fill both the manned and unmanned jobs.
"The pipeline that produces manned operators is full," said Sheldon. "We’re pushing them through there as fast as we can."
The two new programs are just beginning.
Two
pilots have just been selected to go directly from training to the
unmanned program. Once there they will get an additional four to six
weeks of schooling on how to operate the drone, how the weapons systems
work, and how to coordinate with troops on the ground.
Eventually that will expand, sending as many as 100 a year through the drone program for the next three years.
Meanwhile,
the test program for non-pilots is aimed at Air Force captains who have
four to six years of experience, but no flight training. Their
schooling would take up to nine months, and they would not have to meet
all of the more stringent standards that jet fighter pilots must.
Unmanned
pilots, for example, will not have to meet certain height or vision
requirements, and also would not be eliminated due to physical
conditions that might prevent them from flying at high altitudes.
In
pressing the Air Force to be more aggressive getting drones to the war,
Gates hinted at such a plan, calling for "bold" thinking.
"All
this may require rethinking long-standing service assumptions and
priorities about which missions require certified pilots and which do
not," Gates said in April.
Under the fledgling program, the drone
pilots would go to Pueblo, Colo., for about six weeks of flight
training. Sheldon said they would learn to fly a small Mitsubishi
single-engine propeller plane, probably do a solo flight and get a
handle on basic aircraft controls.
They would also train on flight simulators, and then go through the unmanned aircraft training.
Officials
quickly reject temptations to compare the drone pilots to video gamers
who have a far easier job at their computer screens than pilots sitting
in cockpits.
An F-16 fighter jet, said Sheldon is easy enough to
fly from one spot to another. The harder part, he said, is deploying
the weapons.
The same is true for the drones.
"It’s not
particularly difficult to fly a (drone) from point A to point B," said
Sheldon. "It is challenging to fly it in a combat environment,
coordinating with a guy on the ground who wants you to hit a target
over here that’s got (friendly) folks only 50 meters from it."
Air
Force captains have until Nov. 3 to apply for the new program. They
will be screened and tested, and the first 10 will begin classes Jan.
5. A second class of 10 will begin in April.
The test program
will also get reviewed by the Federal Aviation Administration in the
coming months. Officials could not provide any cost estimates for the
new training programs.
Source: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hPQrtn2i-oQWeOnGGQ1V-OPPALgAD94052EG1
