Originally Posted by
Albief15
Now that the SecDef has finally thrown a tizzy that only 30 of 50 or so desired UAV caps are manned 24/7 (published in USA Today, not classifed) we suddenly have the money to let UAV pilots do what they should....blow $hit up, study to blow more $hit up, and get some rest so they can blow $hit up tomorrow. My hope is that some of that same picture flows out to the rest of the CAF. We can always hope....
Unfortunately, what we're seeing actually happen is that fighter dudes are getting non-vol'd to UAVs and RC-12s because those are the "must fill" jobs per the SECDEF's mandate. Yes, they're pumping lots of people into UAVs from many different places, but they are still gutting the fighter manning as well.
As an example, in my squadron we have about 10 first-tour pilots who are all up for assignments in the next few months. Because of the "MUST FILL -- NOW!" nature of these jobs (RC-12 and UAS), it means that literally half of these guys will be diverted over to other airframes/jobs. Are they ever coming back? Nobody knows...but either way the fighter community is losing out.
So, we have another massive knee-jerk reaction to the closest, hottest target with little or no thought ALLOWED about the range-limited targets that are sitting just off the scope, yet will be in our chili within the next couple years.