Air Force to Offer Larger Retention Bonuses, Much Like the Maximum $25,000 Stipend, and Double the Monthly Incentive Pay for Drone Operators — from $600 to $1,500 — to Persuade Them to Stay in the Air Force

Air Force to tap Guard, Reserve to fill drone pilot shortage

January 16, 2015

AP - The Air Force is taking several steps to fill a significant shortfall in drone pilots, laying out plans to increase incentive pay, bring more National Guard and Reserve pilots onto active duty, and seek volunteers to fill needed slots, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said Thursday.

Calling them interim measures, James told reporters they may seek larger retention bonuses for drone pilots, much like the maximum $25,000 stipend that manned aircraft pilots can receive. While the Air Force has long struggled with a shortage of drone operators, the demands of ongoing operations around the world, including persistent airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, have exacerbated the problem.

"This is a force that is under significant stress from what is an unrelenting pace of operations," James said.

The Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Mark Welsh, said plans to reduce the number of combat air patrols by drones are instead "on an upward trend" because of the missions in Iraq and Syria.

"We have just got to get ahead of this," said Welsh, adding that the Air Force can train only 180 drone pilots a year, despite an annual need for 300. 

The force loses about 240 drone pilots a year, as airmen leave the service or move to other jobs.

James said she will double the monthly incentive pay for some drone operators — from $600 to $1,500 — to persuade them to stay in the Air Force. The increased bonus pay would be targeted to those who have finished their initial six-year service commitment. All drone pilots now get the $600 monthly stipend, but James said current policies do not allow her to give any a retention bonus of up to $25,000 to encourage them to stay in the service.

She also said she will shift funds in order to bring some National Guard and Reserve drone pilots onto active duty, and will ask other trained drone operators to volunteer to deploy for six months to some of the more strained units. Welsh added that the Air Force will ask 33 current drone pilots to voluntarily stay in their jobs, rather than going back to their original aircraft as planned later this summer.

The shortage of drone pilots dates back to at least 2008, when the service was forcing fighter pilots to transfer to the unmanned aircraft to meet escalating demands for wartime surveillance and strike operations. Two years ago, the service was struggling to fill a shortfall of 300 drone pilots to meet the continuing demand for surveillance and airstrike operations in Afghanistan, while other regions, such as Asia, also sought more patrols.

There are currently 988 active-duty pilots for the Predator and Reaper drones — the two most lethal unmanned aircraft commonly used for surveillance and strikes. More than 1,200 pilots are needed.

Drone pilots work six days in a row, for an average of 13 to 14 hours a day. They log 900-1,100 flight hours a year, compared with pilots who fly manned aircraft and put in between 200-300 hours per year, James said.

Drones are currently flying 65 24-hour combat air patrols day around the world. The goal has been to have 10 crews per combat air patrol, in order to meet staffing needs and allow the pilots time for schooling, training and other career-building time. But the Air Force has struggled to maintain eight crews for each patrol and that will become increasingly difficult as a number of pilots prepare to leave the force this year.

Welsh said the plan had been to reduce the daily patrol to 55, but that became impossible when the mission against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria began last year.

Welsh and James said they have trimmed their force as much as they can, but the current 315,000 is as low as they can go.

"We are getting too small to succeed," said Welsh.

US Air Force moves to stem shortage of drone pilots

January 16, 2016

AFP - Facing a shortage of drone pilots, the US Air Force said Thursday it will increase pay for those who operate the robotic planes and draw on airmen from the reserves to fill the gap.

The growing demand for drones has stretched the American military's resources and placed a major strain on the aircraft's pilots, who work an average of about 14 hours a day, six days a week, Air Force Secretary Deborah James told a news conference.

"This is a force that is under significant stress from what is an unrelenting pace of operations," James said.

Plans to bolster the number of drone pilots come as the United States presses ahead with an air war against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, which has involved daily missions for the robotic aircraft.

The military had expected the need for drone flights to decline slightly with the withdrawal of most troops from Afghanistan. But the US-led air campaign against IS jihadists launched in August has fueled yet more requests for the more than 360 unmanned aircraft in the Air Force fleet, officials said.

"We thought we were drawing down and had a plan in place to man this enterprise that would, if we had actually drawn down, we'd be fine right now," said General Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff.

An internal memo leaked to The Daily Beast last week quoted a top commander warning that drone operations had reached a crisis point due to the manpower shortage, and that the Air Force would not be able to meet a Pentagon demand for 65 drone combat air patrols this year.

With a large number of the drone pilots approaching the end of their commitment to the military, commanders are anxious to avoid a brain drain and are looking for ways to persuade them to stay in uniform.

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In this image obatined from the US Air Force an Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone takes off March 13, 2009 …

"We've met the operational demand signal, but we're doing it by putting people in a position where they're now having a debate whether they want to continue doing this," Welsh said.

- Looking at pay -

The Air Force secretary unveiled what she called "first steps" designed to relieve the pressure on the pilots. But additional measures are being drawn up, possibly including initiatives to be funded in the Pentagon's budget request to Congress next month.

"We will maximize the use of the National Guard and reserve and indeed, we will be redirecting some resources in order to provide the money to bring additional personnel on active duty," she said.

Some troops who have been trained as drone pilots but have since moved on to other assignments will be asked to return to the drone mission.

And drone operators who are due to leave for other missions will be ordered to stay on temporarily.

"We're also looking at pay," James said.

Drone operators are paid the same rate as conventional pilots, but are not eligible for bonus "incentive" pay offered to persuade airmen to remain in the military as they near the end of their term of service, officials said.

James aims to change that rule but in the meantime, the secretary has approved an increase in the monthly pay for drone pilots whose tenure is about to expire.

The move would hike monthly flight pay from $650 a month to $1,500, according to Welsh.

James said she had visited last year Creech Air Force base in Nevada, a major hub for drone operations, and learned first hand of the strains placed on the pilots.

An average pilot of manned aircraft in the Air Force flies between 200 to 300 hours a year, while drone pilots log 900 to 1,100 flight hours per year, she said.

Welsh said the Air Force also is looking at having enlisted troops fly drones, a practice that the army already has adopted.