P3...
They tried this nonsense back in the 80's with the separate designator, think it might have been Aviation Duty Officer. That track was a flying track and offered few, if any , command opportunities. At the same time there was also a flying LDO program that fed aviation officers for tracom slots as well as shipboard aviator billets.
The Luftwaffe has two tracks...one a flying track and the other a command track...if you elect the flying track you stay in the cockpit but will never make general...the other track you fly a lot of large mahogany desks...
I agree that Navy's up or out hurts the pilot ranks. Getting your "checks in the box" for the joint stuff, staff stuff and post grad education as well as your "disassociated sea tour" has nothing to do with flying. Unfortunately, the only way you can get ahead is to hit all these targets.
Why are they letting current officers out of the Navy for free when they could have made them pilots??? Sounds like a waste to me. I think this warrant officer program will end up in the trash heap just as the other programs did. It's a wonderful solution to a non-existent problem.
JMO
Pilot7576