The Air Force is looking for a few good drone pilots, but not enough are lining up to fill those spots, claims a new report from an Air Force pilot who researches recruitment issues. One reason is trouble with the selection and training problems. But the other reason: Young pilots who join the military see the drone track as a dead-end career.
Colonel Brad Hoagland, who’s spent 23 years in the Air Force, took year-long break to study the system from the outside as part of a fellowship at the Brookings Institution. Hoagland went back to flying C-130s this summer, but in a newly released report — the result of his year-long study — he explains a few reasons why top brass in the Air Force need to give their Remotely Piloted Aircraft program a closer look.
The Air Force’s drone program has been growing quickly — it’s staffed by a little over 1,300 pilots as of this year, and is due to take in about 350 new pilots by 2017. “We’ve been building the platform faster than we can fill them with operators,” Hoagland previously told NBC News.
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