UASIT

Contractors' role grows in drone missions, worrying some in the military | McClatchy

rickair7777

Yeah, all links in the kill chain need to be in uniform. Civilians can make dotted-line contributions from the side.

Grumble

Irony has a sense of humor.

UASIT

Indeed it does...

LivingInMEM

The name was changed from UAV to RPA to reflect a personnel requirement.

Those numbers are apples and oranges. To keep one Pred up for one 24hr period takes no more 20 people including operators, mx, comm, etc. RPA numbers that are often quoted are total squadron manning that is calculated on a per CAP basis, similar to a crew per aircraft ratio. Given the higher mx costs, etc, the personnel cost to get 24 hrs of F-16 coverage would be much higher than that of RPA.

Elvis90

Gen Breedlove is simply trying to justify more funding. How much manpower is required for 24 hours of F-16 coverage? Take his F-16 sortie and multiply it several times over, which would then dwarf the UAV numbers, thereby justifying budget cuts. I agree, it's 'apples and oranges'.

Dragon7

Maybe they can hire the pilots they recently sent packing as contractors.

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Living the Hiring Boom

LivingInMEM

Pilots make up a very small percentage of contractor requirements in RPA and across the USAF.

sandy69

Mabey they should let enlisted people fly the drones, no need to pay an officer to do what most 16 year olds can already do.

rickair7777

There's a little more to it than that.

How many sixteen years have authority to launch missiles on unsuspecting targets...who had better not turn out to be innocent bystanders.

In many cases we use officers to do jobs where the skill itself is not that hard but the ramifications of screwing up are large...junior officers generally have better judgement and perspective, and more to lose, than junior enlisted.