Originally Posted by
BDGERJMN
INHO, the WO program isnt' really 'cheap' labor if you consider the big fiscal picture. The retirement pay isn't really where the gov't spends its money. The healthcare is and there is no difference in the cost of a E-7s health care vs an O-6 to my knowledge. It's the same reason the military outsources contract maintenance in the production sources(TRACOM/FRS). It's way cheaper to pay a company a set fee than it is to plan for those retirements or a percentage of them down the road.
Point taken on the bennefits packages.
However, if a service needs, say 20,000 pilots (about the number of Army WO's), it needs 20,000 pilots regardless of the rank and all bennefits will be the same across the board. If you bring two officers in off the street, make one an branch officer and one a warrant officer then by the four year mark the branch officer (by then a CPT) will be earning in the neighborhood of $1200 a month more than his warrant officer (CW2) buddy with exactly the same flight training. Only difference is one guy is going to focus on flying first and doing staff work second, and the other is going to be a manager/commander/staff officer first and aviator second.
Continue that out over a career and the branch officer will always make $12-1700 more per month. That doesn't take into consideration higher BAH either. Now multiply that over the course of a year and over 20,000 aviators and you've got quite a cost savings.
Additionally, I know many WO's who would make fantastic company commanders or staff officers and who work just as hard, if not harder, than their branch officer counterparts.