Staff Sgt. john Bainter/USAF
David Axe, Daily Beast: How America Broke Its Drone Force
The Pentagon’s generals amassed an unmanned armada. Then they ran it into the ground.
In a tent at Nellis Air Force Base on the northern edge of Las Vegas, the officer in charge of a U.S. Air Force drone unit strolled into a meeting with the 20 or so pilots and sensor operators under his command. It was in the winter of 2005-2006, and the officer just wanted to try out some ideas he had for boosting unit morale, he recalled later in a conversation with an Air Force historian.
But it was too late. The drone crews from the 15th Reconnaissance Squadron were already “so bitter and angry,” the flight commander remembered. And when he opened his mouth, the drone operators actually booed.
Update #1: As Stress Drives Off Drone Operators, Air Force Must Cut Flights -- New York Times
Update #2: The Air Force Is Slowing Drone Strikes Because Pilots Are Getting Burnout -- Popular Mechanics
WNU Editor: Unmanned vehicles have shown what the future of war is going to look like .... and it is obvious that their need (and importance) will only grow as the Air Force struggles to keep pace with its growth.
4 comments:
I imagine a lot of the frustration the drone pilots feel comes from knowledge that they are participating in what is really unintended consequences falling out of a war of choice that includes regularly killing innocents. Should they be required to actually defend America against attack I would think their morale would improve considerably.
I listened to a Vietnam vet returning home during that war. He commented was that it was very hard to deal with fighting and killing one day, then the next day being met by his wife and kids when he was brought home. No down time. I imagine for the drone pilots that issue is magnified a hundred perhaps thousand times.
that's where SkyNet comes in :)
The issue with the USAF is that they're limiting drone-flying to commissioned pilots. Additionally, drone-flying, for the Air Force aviator, is at considered to be at a level just above having to work a ground-job.
The Army has had drone ops for quite some time and they're not having the problems that the USAF is.
sligthly off topic, I suspect the drones are used because they are cheap and expendable, I mean 5/20 million if downed, but the crew remain untouched. but while not a tech wiz I assume they can be downed easily especially by a manned figther and so are only really usefull when air superiority is given - and as such they can only really be used against a broken enemy or by national consent, then why do the america need the predator this much?
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