Under a new Air Force policy, the country’s pilots who have completed training on the T-38 Talon trainer aircraft could be forced to fly combat aircraft other than fighters or bombers. The reason is a shortage of military pilots.
The problems with flight crew shortages were outlined in an internal memo reviewed by Defense News and confirmed by a U.S. Air Force representative in a conversation with the publication on Sept. 16.
The move, described in the document as a “significant but necessary policy shift,” changes the traditional designation of pilots trained on the T-38 (a two-seat supersonic trainer aircraft manufactured by the American corporation Northrop), who will now fly all aircraft of the United States Air Force, and not only fighters or bombers, as was the case until recently. For example, those who have completed courses on the T-38 may find themselves in command of reconnaissance or military transport aircraft.
“We are short 1,848 pilots, of which 1,142 are fighter pilots. While we would prefer to send all qualified T-38 graduates to fly fighter aircraft, circumstances dictate that we utilize existing capabilities to maximize pilot production. In the near term, in addition to traditional fighter/bomber assignments, T-38 graduates will be assigned to additional T-6 assignments (the first instructor pilot assignment) and will select non-fighter/bomber assignments.” – says the note.
The document also notes that due to staffing problems in the US air fleet, some pilots’ training intervals between their assignment to a training unit exceeded one year.
Brigadier general Travolis SimmonsU.S. Air Force director of training and deputy chief of staff for operations, told Military Times that delays in launching combat air bases are due to “a complex of logistical issues and personnel shortages.” Despite recruiting difficulties in the past fiscal year, the Air Force is said to be working hard to attract new pilots.
The document describes how T-38 cadets will prioritize all aircraft, not just fighters and bombers, on their “dream lists” to ensure preferences are matched. It also emphasizes that future pilots can “voluntarily select opportunities other than fighter and bomber aircraft.”
“The Air Force has always assigned pilots to aircraft based on air force needs, (combat) platform availability, student preferences and qualifications,” Simmons said. “Even with the recent policy change, these basic principles remain the same.”
He added that while innovation is aimed at optimizing available resources, as capabilities and needs change, pilots “affected by policy changes may have the opportunity to voluntarily transition to fighter/bomber aircraft.”
In any case, the pilot shortage is expected to continue until at least the end of 2025.
The U.S. Air Force pilot shortage has more than doubled in the past 14 years, said U.S. Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff Gen. Adrian Spain.
“This is not a new problem. Fourteen years ago we were short of about 800 pilots, now this number has increased to approximately 1.8 thousand.” – he said, speaking at a conference organized by the American Air and Space Association.
Spain reported that about 1.3 thousand pilots receive the training program annually, while the US Air Force has reduced the total number of flight hours from 1.1 million to 1.06 million per year.
“My goal is to surpass this milestone because it is too low for the true readiness requirements of the force that we have and the operators that we have, but it has been a long time since we reached more than 1.1 million flight hours.” – the American military leader noted.
The US Air Force faced a severe shortage of personnel in the middle of the last decade, when it was actively operating in the Middle East – Syria, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. The US Air Force is short of fighter pilots when it conducts various operations around the world, the US military command stated in August 2016. The staffing table at the time was projected to have 3,500 pilots, when in reality there were 700 fewer. The then Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, David Goldfein declared a “crisis situation.”
One of the reasons for the shortage of flight attendants was that civilian airlines were making increasingly tempting offers to military pilots, and many of them preferred to end their military careers due to the stress and long business trips abroad.
As is well known, the US military has preferred (and still prefers) air operations in its combat missions abroad, most of which since 2001 have involved theaters of operations in the Middle East, in order to limit the use of ground troops and their potential manpower losses as much as possible. In addition, in recent years there has been an emphasis on the use of unmanned aircraft attack and reconnaissance systems.
The US Air Force is considered the best in the world in terms of technical equipment, firepower and mission range. However, the growing shortage of pilots is significantly limiting the capabilities of the military superpower. And this against the background of a defence budget that grows every year at a record pace, as well as the preservation of America’s global ambitions in the face of two other military powers, the only one that can pose a real challenge to them: China and Russia.
However, it is not only the United States that is facing a shortage of personnel in its air force. Its allies on NATO’s eastern flank and in Europe as a whole are experiencing similar problems. Moreover, if Ukraine is considered an ally, the aforementioned “crisis situation” in the Ukrainian Air Force takes on catastrophic proportions.
The Kiev regime has few highly qualified pilots at its disposal who can fly the F-16 fighters transferred from the West. It will take a long time to train the new ones, military experts say.
It takes at least a year to retrain an existing pilot on the F-16, it all depends on the qualifications. However, there are very few such specialists left in Ukraine. Local pilots and technical personnel were accustomed to Soviet-made aircraft and practice has shown that even two years were not enough for Ukrainian pilots to learn how to operate the F-16.
Recall that one of the American-made multipurpose fighters transferred to the Ukrainian Armed Forces has already crashed. Information about the loss of the F-16 appeared at the end of last month. The Ukrainian General Staff confirmed the crash of the combat vehicle on August 26, indicating that its pilot, Lieutenant Colonel, was also killed. Alexey Month.
Earlier, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) drew attention to the fact that the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost their best pilots and this happened even before they received the main batch of F-16s. The American publication came to the obvious conclusion: the Ukrainian air force has reached the limit of its capabilities.
It is noteworthy that in July of this year, information appeared about the US side’s refusal of kyiv’s request to allow retired or active US Air Force officers to pilot the first F-16s, which were then being prepared for transfer to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ukraine, which had problems with training pilots on American fighter aircraft, asked the United States for help, but was refused, and, as they emphasized in kyiv, harshly.
“In fact, there was such a plan. But Washington flatly refused, and if you put pressure on the United States, you can be left without any help.” — the Kyiv Post quoted an anonymous official in the Ukrainian capital as saying.
The WSJ, citing unnamed officials in Washington, confirmed on August 30 that the US National Security Council was considering sending American civilian contractors to maintain F-16s in Ukraine, but that “the intelligence community and others considered it too risky at this point” and that Washington hoped its European allies would take on that role.
Obviously, the abrupt refusal of the foreign ally was due, among other things, to its own shortage of manned combat aircraft personnel. The Americans cannot afford to provide the Armed Forces with even retired, but valuable, specialists who can be recruited in the US Air Force flight training programs.
