A friend of mine is an Air Force O5 aviator qualified in C130's and other multi-engine equipment. Currently he is deployed flying unmanned vehicles from a contol panel at an undisclosed rear area venue. Will it continue to be necessary to staff this function with an expensively trained pilot? Isn't it possible to train a "tech" type to do the same?

It takes a trained pilot to understand the airspace issues and weather issues and mission issues...etal.

The US Army studied using enlisted "gunners" on the AH1 and AH64 in the mid 1980's. Sound good on paper, but the skill sets required to be a good gunner were already trained into pilots, not to mention either guy could fly the airplane if the other one was shot.

The USAF uses "tech" types to run the sensors from what I understand, but the flying part really does need to be a pilot.

The Air Force and the Navy both use commisioned officers to fly their UAV's. The Army on the other hand is flown by enlisted. I have a pretty good understanding of UAV's since I am a UAV pilot and currently deployed to Iraq. I fly the Shadow TUAV but am qualified on several others.

The Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Army all fly versions of the Shadow as well as their own versions of Predator and Hunter. There are also a few others out there such as the Reaper that are just coming on line.

The schooling for UAV's in the Army is conducted down at Ft Huachuca, AZ and lasts about 6 months. During that school you go through the same FAA ground school as any other pilot has to.

Flying UAV's does take a skilled pilot, but it sure as heck does not take an officer to do it. My platoon holds the record for UAV flight hours in a combat zone - and guess what - ALL FLOWN BY ENLISTED!!!

When I was at Camp Taji I was the UAV flight line NCOIC - we handled the launch and recovery for all the Shadow UAV's over the Baghdad/cenral Iraq region. THat is about 20 flights a day on average. We shared the runway with a Navy UAV platoon. My counterpart with them was an O-4 while I am a lowly E-6. And all my pilots were E-5 or lower. The Navy guys were a great bunch to work with but they all wondered basically the same thing you are. Why were only officers flying when it is well proven that enlisted can handle the mission just fine.

Good on ya, Tank.

RG

Roger that, Tank. Stay safe. If there is anything my family can do for yours here Stateside, drop me a note.
Regards......Tom

M1 Tanker: You make my point, it takes a trained pilot, I did not say commissioned officer. Even Navamar Corp. is using trained and FAA certified pilots for the internal flight duties.

Turf is an issue in the Military, the Army, like all elite troops, hates pilots, but cannot live without them. That's why they use Warrant Officers (I am a retired one myself) as much as possible. The other services are trying to protect traditional turf by using commissioned officers for the UAV piloting duties.

Russia currently holds the record for producing the biggest flying drone in the world.

It has flown higher, faster and further and has a huge payload capability that dwarfs any of the drones the West has...

Russian Drone

Given the advances in artificial intellegence and technology in general, it will only be a matter of time before Western drones will be virtually fully autominous..

With in 20 years I predict that the only human interaction will be the final descision to release its payload...