Posted on 01/05/2015 9:46:29 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
Active Duty ping.
> The Air Force has enough MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones. It just doesn’t have the manpower to operate those machines
Simple solution; form a program named Sky-Net to develop AI for the drones where they can work sutonomously on a network network them so they can perform coordinated attacks...should work just fine.
Just port access to the drones to XBOX LIVE using a VIDEO GAME and problem solved.
A man who had never run so much as a hot dog cart is somehow put in charge of the largest and most complex government on Earth. This is what happens.
Always the Air Force.
“”Unlike its sister services, who have all decided the best way to deal with demand for UAV pilots is to make it an enlisted career field, the Air Force currently insists on holding out for commissioned officers only. That means to fly a UAV in the Air Force, you’ll need a college degree, though not necessarily a pilot’s license. According to Brigadier General Lyn D. Sherlock, in this 2008 interview with Air Force Times, enlisted careers in UAVs are off the table for the moment “because battlefields are complex, joint environments that involve other aircraft and communicating with soldiers and airmen on the ground.”
Seems like plenty of enlisted aircrew already deal with that complexity, but so be it.””
Agreed. The sensor operators often pilot the craft anyway.
Yep.
It took a lot of pressure to make them stop requiring that drone pilots be pilots on flight status.
A twisted ankle meant that the drone pilot was off flight status on drones.
The Air Force has serious weaknesses as far as being focused on what really counts, they are more like a bloated, self focused government agency, than a branch of the military.
MFL.
So, you ask yourself some stupid questions. If you went through hundreds of hours of training, went through four years of college, and then went through a hearty pilot-instruction to become a F-15 or F-16 pilot, AND then some idiot said they needed you to be a seat-warmer and fly a drone for three years...how would you feel?
You sit there for X number of drone missions, and one night do something extraordinary....then a month later, there’s an award ceremony where they give you a Silver Star or big-time award...with smirks from the audience...you, the drone guy, getting some award that used to mean something but now it’s been all cheapen down. How would you feel?
My son at age sixteen....king of World of Warcraft....probably could have gone through a three-month orientation of the drone business and out flown ninety-percent of the pilots there. There’s tens of thousands of punk kids with the capability of flying the drone, killing bad guys when necessary, and sipping Mountain Dew by the case to stay awake.
I don’t buy into any of this garbage. While I did my twenty-odd years in the AF, I was in a field where it was generally one officer for every four enlisted. Most of the enlisted by ten years of service had at least an associates degree. Roughly fifty percent of the NCOs retiring at twenty had a bachelor’s degree. If they want more drone pilots....they’ve already got the people there and ready to go.
All this is....is a forced option where they get some idiot at the Pentagon to agree to bring in another 500 pilots into the Air Force. You can see the gimmick....how it’s rigged up....and it’ll relate to some number in the Pentagon budget.
Perhaps the AF should turn it over to the Marines.
Yep, it is clearly a case of leadership that has goals and ego-centric motivations that conflict with mission needs of the American military as a fighting force.
Since the air force brass can’t figure out the solution, perhaps drone operations should be turned over to the army, together with the staffing slots and funding. If that works out, roll the whole AF back in.
That was my first thought. I have a grandson (12) who would love this stuff. Only kid I have seen work a mouse with one hand and type away with the other.
back to the USAAF
Trading on the stock market today is mostly done automatically by computer algorthyms - with entire buildings in NYC being renovated for computers instead of office space. (True!)
Hmm - what is more worrisome? Some drones or our economy run by computers?
Skynet... as the millennials all say, “No problem”.
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