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Originally Posted by ObadiahDogberry
Just a casual observer here, but why hasn't the military (at least publicly) looked at doing with pilots what they are doing with other specialty positions like doctors and lawyers? If I am a licensed civilian doctor, my civilian licensing and education is recognized, I can join the military up to age 48, and go through a 5.5 week OTS. If someone had told me at 40 or 45 that my FAA ATP and 8,000 hours of flight time would be recognized by the Air Force, I would have happily applied. The military does not send experienced and licensed doctors or lawyers back to year one of medical school or law school, but at least the last time I looked at it 20 years ago, they did send experienced and licensed pilots back to day one of flight school. If you are going in active duty as an experienced doctor, you are going to be in the military as a doctor. But If you were going in active duty, as an experienced pilot, you may not even get a pilot slot (again, this is the last I looked at it 20 + years ago, when I was still in my 20s, may be different now), the only way to ensure you get a pilot slot was to get hired by a guard or reserve unit. I get that there is some kind of front line combat flying you might not want a 45 year old jumping in to, I certainly wouldn't expect the Air Force to throw someone like me in to an F-35 or F-22. But being an experienced Boeing pilot, how much of a transition would it be to put me in a C-5, or C-40, or KC-135? I am not expecting a six to eight week airline style training program, I get that it would be a longer training program. But if you accept that someone is arriving as a licensed and experienced pilot, just as you would if they were a licensed and experienced doctor or lawyer, that would certainly reduce training timelines and expense, and may increase the pool of potential pilots, especially among the guard or reserve. For you military guys, is this faulty thinking, or is there any merit to this idea?
In WWII, they did use civilian aviation training as a lead-in to military training (and instruction), but that was actually planned in advance since the powers-that-be expected war as far back as the early 1930's. So they setup a civilian pipeline to prime the pump.
I agree an experienced pilot could probably spool up faster in the air mobility community, or for things like AWACS, but it would require a custom course.
Probably the big thing is formation flying... almost all platforms have some mission which requires that, air drops in mobility and AR for pretty much everyone including AWACS, MPRA, TACAMO. Military training has a very strong formation flying foundation so IMO you'd have get folks through that at the very least.
But the fundamental problem todays isn't one of lacking enough entry-level pilots... it's retaining those with experience who can lead and train the junior folks. That's a very big deal given the complexities of Joint military operations... many hours going into preparing for each flight.
Also the mil has a very large overhead of "management pilots", mostly mid or senior-grade pilots who fill staff (non-flying) jobs at major headquarters. Yes that's absolutely essential to ensure that all of that Joint (and international allied) warfighting gets planned with proper guidance from those who know the intricate ins and outs of air warfare. Same applies to all other military specialties... you don't want a Army artillery officer planing the air warfare part of Joint ops, or vice versa. When the mil says they have a "pilot shortage" it's not really at the squadron level, it's the staff positions which suffer first.
The really never has been a shortage of kids who want to fly jets in the mil, and once they get them they're obligated for 12+ years. The problem now is keeping them after that.
The crux of the matter today is the airline demand and opportunities which is attracting mid and senior mil pilots.