全球智库信息集成服务系统

Because the fundamental objective of either supplemental path is to enhance retention, particularly when demand for commercial pilots is high, the ATT is clearly favored.

• Both alternatives would yield modest cost savings, and both would present risks yet to be fully evaluated. Not least significant is that a WO program would require development and management of new processes and policies across the personnel life cycle — recruiting, accessions, compensation, retention, utilization, promotion, and transition. An ATT would require much less sweeping adjustments, most of which would be managed through creation of a new competitive category.

This report documents analyses to help the U.S. Air Force Director of Military Force Management Policy respond to a request from congressional staff to consider reimplementation of a warrant officer (WO) program in the Air Force, specifically to fill pilot requirements, or an alternative, an aviation technical track (ATT) for commissioned officers (COs). Either alternative would supplement the traditional pilot career path in a manner intended to enhance force sustainment and thus help to reduce pilot shortages at least cost. Only one alternative — the ATT — was found likely to achieve this objective.

Any shift in management of the Air Force's pilot workforce must be evaluated with consideration of its centrality to the Air Force's core missions and the difficulty of keeping pilot production, absorption, retention, and overall inventory sustainment in balance. Pilot production and absorption are difficult to expand and are often constrained below levels needed to meet requirements. Retention is very sensitive to extrinsic factors, particularly major airline hiring.

This report draws from RAND Project AIR FORCE capabilities and existing pilot models. In brief, the authors found that structural considerations would permit either a WO component or an ATT of the officer pilot force, sized at about 1,000 pilots out of a total requirement of a little under 13,000. Most importantly, the WO option would be expected to reduce pilot retention, while the ATT would be expected to increase it. Cost considerations, although minor, are favorable for both alternatives. Both present risks that merit more consideration than were possible in the analyses yet performed.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  A Warrant Officer Component

• Chapter Three

  An Aviation Technical Track

• Chapter Four

  Conclusions