Originally Posted by
Fishfreighter
This may serve to keep pilots IN the military. How many TACAIR guys have 1500 hours at the end of their commitment? That's why the airlines in the past have multiplied TACAIR time by a factor of 1.2 when hiring. If the law is a hard 1500 then there are military pilots who won't qualify. And if they have to stay beyond their initial commitment then they might as well do 20 and THEN go to the airlines.
TACAIR guys fly many short sorties. Remember, military guys log time differently--takeoff to touch down + 5 min. They spend LOTS of time on the ground which would count in civilian log books (arming, dearming, waiting for their wingman to catch up, running checklists....). A true conversion may be close to 1.5 times hours actually logged. If it's a civilian 1500 hrs required for the ATP, they may easily justify a 0.4+ adjustment per sortie which will add up over 500-1000 sorties.
On a side note: At one time, there was a move to provide all military pilots an ATP equivelency exam. Maybe this will come back to life. You have 12-1500 hour DC-10 (KC-10) Captains flying ocean crossings with 300 hour First-Officers everyday (with pax). I think you could justify an ATP equivelency would be warranted.