The Air Force flying hours program—which has suffered steady declines in recent years to the alarm of observers and lawmakers—will stabilize in the coming years as leaders focus on making sure pilots and aircraft alike can actually fly all the hours that are funded, the ...
The Air Force’s Rated Officer Demonstration Program, announced Aug. 15, will offer pilots assignment preferences in addition to monetary bonuses, a service spokeswoman told Air & Space Forces Magazine on Aug. 18. In addition, pilots will have to sign at least an eight-year contract to receive ...
The Air Force is instituting a new bonus program to entice its pilots to stay in the service by encouraging them to re-up years in advance. The Rated Officer Retention Demonstration program, formally unveiled Aug. 15, will offer bonuses of up to $50,000 per year to ...
As the Air Force struggles to ease its pilot shortage, it can still fill all its cockpits, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said June 7. But that has come at the expense of staff jobs normally assigned to pilots, leading the service ...
As the Air Force battles a persistent pilot shortage made worse by aging training aircraft, the service has started approaching its current pilots earlier in their careers to offer retention incentives, hoping to convince them to stay in the military longer, Vice Chief of Staff ...
The Air Force made little progress in closing its pilot shortage in fiscal 2022, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin wrote in testimony delivered to Congress this week. And issues with training aircraft are slowing down the production of new pilots, he told lawmakers.
Certain Active-duty pilots who renew their contracts can earn up to $420,000 through the service’s 2022 Aviation Bonus program. “Airpower will always be in high demand, and our operational readiness hinges on retaining a force of skilled and experienced aviators,” said Chief of Staff Gen. Charles ...
Active-duty Airmen who want to become pilots, combat systems officers, air battle managers, or remotely piloted aircraft pilots now have until Dec. 31 to apply for the Rated Preparatory Program. The Air Force launched the program in partnership with the Civil Air Patrol in 2019 ...
The Air Force’s pilot production numbers stayed relatively steady from fiscal 2019 to 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said, an encouraging sign that the service’s efforts to speed up that pipeline are working. That progress could be ...
The Air Force has long faced a silent crisis: It can’t train and retain enough pilots. And now, challenged to confront peer adversaries, rather than the insurgents it’s been engaging for the last 20 years, even the pilots the service can train aren’t getting the ...
Air Education and Training Command's “Accelerated Path to Wings” program graduated its first-ever class of undergraduate pilots at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas, on March 12. The program produces pilots in approximately seven months—five months shorter than typical undergraduate pilot training—by letting student pilots stick ...
The Air Force may not have enough remotely piloted aircraft pilots and sensor operators to stand up a new wing in 2024, as it struggles to retain personnel and increase the size of its instructor pilot cadre, the Government Accountability Office says in a new ...