The
Air Force’s pilot shortage is even worse than service Secretary Heather Wilson
reported last week.
Wilson,
speaking during a “State of the Air Force” briefing on Thursday, said the
service is short 1,926 pilots. However, that number was based on an old
counting method that didn’t include remotely-piloted aircraft operators or the
Reserve component, Air Force spokeswoman Erika Yepsen said.
Including
RPA pilots, as well as pilot shortfalls in the Guard and Reserve, the actual
number is “approximately 2,000 Total Force” pilots USAF was short by the end of
fiscal 2017, Yepsen said. The Aircrew Crisis Task Force “expanded the scope of
our analysis to ensure we’re taking a more holistic look at all pilot numbers,”
she said in an email to
Air Force Magazine.
Putting
the numbers into more context, Yepsen said “the shortage in our manned
platforms continued to grow by about 250 pilots” in FY17, although that loss
“was offset by improvements in the health of our RPA force.”
The
fighter pilot shortage “continues to be our greatest problem,” she said, as
USAF is “nearly 1,300 fighter pilots short” across the Total Force. However,
the “greatest negative trend” between fiscal ‘16 and ‘17 was “in our bomber and
mobility pilots.”
Brig.
Gen. Mike Koscheski, head of the Aircrew Crisis Task Force, said at a Pentagon
press event in October that USAF’s solution “is to grow our way out of this,”
looking for a 25 percent increase in pilot production. He said it would take
time “to get in place what we need to start producing more pilots,” and the key
element to that is to have “stable and predictable budgets.”
At
the State of the Air Force brief last week where Wilson offered the 1,926
number, Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein said the service is “first and
foremost looking to retain everyone we can, as we build up our capacity to
produce more.”
He
also asserted USAF’s pilot shortage is symptomatic of a wider problem
wherein the nation isn’t producing nearly enough pilots to satisfy military or
commercial needs, which pushes the airlines to raid the ranks of military
aviators. “This is a national-level issue that we’re working with industry,”
Goldfein said.
The
Air Force is designing new programs to try to keep pilots. The Air Force
Personnel Center on Thursday announced that airmen who are selected for
dependent-restricted, short overseas tours can select their follow-on assignments.
The airmen can pick where they go as long as
they select a “realistic location.” This agreement would let airmen’s families
stay in the pre-tour location, or move to a follow-on location early, according
to
AFPC.