[Gamecock]

That, plus the increased use of unmanned aircraft, and the very real prospect that the age of the manned combat aircraft may be coming to an end. This is made worse with hundreds of fighter pilots being assigned to operating Predator and Reaper UAVs. This was not popular duty, even though the pilots still draw flight pay.

It may be deeper in the story, pardon me for not clicking and checking first, but...

In the Army we have junior enlisted "flying" UAVs, not officers like in the Air Force.

I would think that sooner or later the Air Force is going to have to justify having higher paid officers flying these things compared to the Army enlisted.

[HiramQuick]

real life video arcades ... kids will excel.

[xzins]

IIRC, the Army Air Corps did have enlisted pilots in WWII era. I don’t know when transition happened, but I’d bet it was after split of Army & AF.

What the Army will do now is probably eventually make it a warrant position.

Just a guess.