Speaking during the Dubai Air Show, USAF Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said the service would be making changes to its fledgling effort to produce more remotely piloted vehicle operators more quickly. USAF put its first batch of freshly minted undergraduate pilots into RPV training late last year, and just this past September its beta class of officers with no flying training graduated from initial flight screening and RPV training. According to an Aerospace Daily & Defense report, Schwartz said, “We are trying to find the sweet spot where we don’t train too much and don’t train too little.” He believes the service is “on the right path.”
Collaborative Combat Aircraft designs from Anduril and General Atomics passed their critical design reviews early in November, clearing the way for detailed production efforts to get underway, the Air Force said. How future versions will be upgraded is still under discussion.