Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!
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No mention that some people don’t want to be involved with what they see coming concerning these.
My gosh, a career field in which one can waste a truck load of jihadi technicals, then go home to supper? What could be better than that?
Norm Augustine said by 2050 the DOD will be down to one plane that the Air Force and Navy will share on alternate days and the avionics will comprise 100% of the plane’s weight, the rest will be software.
And of course those that can’t cut it in the military drone program will become drone pilots for Amazon. Flying right over my head.
The Army does OK finding pilots.
The Air Force is doing their usual.
Active Duty ping.
The odd thing is that flying a drone is EXACTLY like flying a drone simulator. There really is no reason any of the pilots to even have real flight experience. It has to make training easier to able to have the pilots completely proficient by the first time they fly a real one, and if they do screw anything up there is always the option to kick them out of the chair and have an expert take over.
I’m proud of the servicemen that fly these craft in defense of our freedom. It is true someday they may be used for oppression, and I hope no one participates in that. But they save millions of dollars and countless lives. Thankfully the aircraft is just a machine can be expendable.
Bet those ground pilots cut their teeth on video games.
In the AF there are certain career dead enders. If you want to rise to senior command you must be a pilot, period. With SAC gone and Global Strike Command still not fully established then you must be either a cargo or fighter pilot. It is best to be a fighter pilot. No drone pilot will see this as an opportunity to rise to senior command. Solution, turn drones over to senior NCO’s. Professional, competent, responsible. Being a Master Sergeant drone pilot will not diminish their chances of promotion to Senior or Chief Master Sergeant.
My suggestion to the 4-Stars was to use Major and Lt. Col pilots coming off of staff jobs to fill the UAV (drone) pilot positions. Their are very few manned aircraft leadership positions that they, as a group, can be assigned to. If they don’t get one of these leadership positions, I can tell you that they would be very happy (or at lease medium happy) to still “fly” something and especially happy to put the crosshairs on a terrorist and schedule him for elimination.
Unfortunately, they went with something they know, a normal career track starting from Lieutenant and trying to have a typical pilot career track. But they quickly busted that concept with the promise of follow on manned aircraft assignments as a carrot. No Lieutenant pilot, fresh out of flight school, wants to sit on the ground while the UAV has all the fun.
Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!
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I think it’s wonderful that we have technology that allows us to defeat an enemy while putting fewer souls at risk. I hope we stay well ahead of our enemies.
However, it’s hard to imagine that flying a craft remotely will be taken as seriously as flying a craft with the pilot on board. There’s quite an incentive to return and land an aircraft when you’re in it.
Thing become a tad “abstract” if you know you are in a simulator. Especially if the “pilot” is brought up on video games.
Let’s hope we take the real destruction seriously.
So, the Air Force personnel are second best. Can you imagine the fat deputy sheriffs that are flying them?