Drone Pilots: We Don’t Get No Respect

[HU&W]

Yes, 18Xers are just as miserable minus the added resentment of "I graduated UPT for this bullshit?". Shiftwork is harmful to your health (physical and mental), the mission is mind numbingly boring and unrewarding, the customers are often clueless and unprofessional, there are incredibly limited opportunities for TDYs and deployments, you have significantly reduced chances for promotion, the bases are mostly in awful locations, and many of the squadron commanders are not credible IPs. It's one thing for a Lt Col who's BTDT to ask you to push the margins a bit, it's another for an O-5 who Q3'd his checkride because he doesn't know the boldface to make the same request. 0/10, would not recommend.

When the boldface contains optional steps, can you blame them?

[guineapigfury]

Well shit. So, things are not going to get better anytime soon then? My classmates were thinking it would be a great job, because you get to fly real missions without having to be gone all the time. I guess that seems good in theory but not in practice. Thanks for the updates.

We are looking at an improvement to effective Ops manning in 2017, which will be temporary if enough 18Xers throw in the towel as their ADSCs expire in 2018. That's my prediction based on talking to the 18Xers I know. All the other suck (Midshift, boring job, assclown customers, no travel, and CONUS desert locations) isn't going away. SQ/CC quality does seem to be improving, but I'm working with a relatively small sample size. If you want to never travel and have the chance to pull the trigger, this job that offers that. I think that's a shitty trade, but there are a handful of dudes who are happy.

When the boldface contains optional steps, can you blame them?

I'm the last guy who would ever defend the steaming pile that is MQ-9 pubs, but this guy fucked away not one but both of the single line boldfaces.

[Champ Kind]

So is this guy still in command? CCs in recent history have been fired for much less.

[guineapigfury]

So is this guy still in command? CCs in recent history have been fired for much less.

No. Deployed commander, he got to finish his 365. He was almost relieved of command for some completely unrelated buffoonery. The only thing I could figure was that some other shit was going to hit the fan and they were keeping him around as a sacrificial lamb.

[guineapigfury]

DAFSC is not your core AFSC. 18A3A is what the position is coded for, this does not mean you are being recatted. If you wish to recat, you submit that request via your ADP. So unless you did that, you should still be an 11X. If you do recat, you become an 11U not an 18X.

[sqwatch]

Can you expand on this...I'm PCSing in a couple months (from a 11X manned aircraft), just got my Change of Projected Assignment and it says "PROJECTED DAFSC: 18A3A".

How does this all work, exactly?

reading this reminded me to take a look at my surf, where i just discovered that

my PAFSC is still 11u (18U, doesn't matter), but i'm filling an 11F position.

they will change your AFSC based on the position you fill. what is important

is your RDTM code. that code (also on your surf- right side towards the bottom

middle) says what porch "owns" you. when you get to droids, the unmanned

porch will control your destiny, but having your original (manned) RDTM code

will at least mean that you show up on your old porch's spreadsheet should

they need you back someday.

[scoobs]

Majestic #2 - I can second what everyone else is saying about the RPA lifestyle. It sucks when compared to my former C-17 life, rotating shifts and being tied to a work schedule- I joined the AF to have variety in my work and this is definitely ground hog day. The leadership will pressure you to re-cat permanently to RPAs. Last year during the force shaping debacle they tried to play on everyone's fear of being RIF'd by saying the only way to guarantee that wouldn't happen would be to re-cat. I told them no thanks and went for the VSP option instead, to no avail. I'm no dummy, they were going to pay me $60K to leave RPAs and active duty behind, I was all for it. Now I have a more realistic viewpoint, I know it is highly unlikely that I will ever sit in a C-17 again, or any manned AF aircraft for that matter. I'm hoping to sneak through after this assignment and be able to go teach UPT, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm fully expecting orders to Holloman next, where I will want to gouge out my eyeballs every day teaching the same boring syllabus rides in the same boring airspace. As soon as I get there, my new CC will receive Palace Chase paperwork, and when that is declined he will continue to receive new PC applications until I'm either allowed to leave active duty or my commitment is up. Then I'll go hate life for a few years in the right seat of a regional jet, but at least I'll be flying airplanes.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited for grammar

Guard/reserve isn't an option?

[JarheadBoom]

Guard/reserve isn't an option?

He did mention Palace Chase.

[Homestar]

When the boldface contains optional steps, can you blame them?

[Duck]

I took the "Do you plan on leaving the Air Force?" Survey and one questioned they asked was, "would you volunteer for UAVs if they were in better locations?". Surprising, but that survey proved to me that the Air Force isn't stupid...

[Lawman]

I took the "Do you plan on leaving the Air Force?" Survey and one questioned they asked was, "would you volunteer for UAVs if they were in better locations?". Surprising, but that survey proved to me that the Air Force isn't stupid...

This seriously makes me wonder.

There was a fight going on with trying to start a new BRAC and the big justification being we own some thousands of unused buildings and storage areas and such.

How much square footage of a foot print do the Air Forces UAV operations seriously eat? I can't imagine you guys would need anywhere near the amount of prepared airfield/hanger space as some of the conventional aviation assets. And if it's the case that a little airfield and a lot of parking lot for containers with the requisite buildings and office space are all you would need, how can we not find space for that somewhere that doesn't suck what little morale you have left.

Honestly I'd be curious if you couldn't justify farming out the burden on to Reserve or big guard bases and just funneling some active duty money towards their facilities maintenance in return.

Edited August 3, 2015 by Lawman

[di1630]

Political moves paid for by airmen and their families see why RPAs are at such great places like Cannon.

You could put RPAs anywhere, hell, maybe Hawaii, Florida and Italy to actually have people working daytime shifts to cover vuls vs the current shitshow.

RPAs are in the suck because in reality, nobody except the dudes who fly them and the people who get their feed care 2 sh-ts about them.

A few smart people could solve this problem ASAP for a few resources diverted from new F-35 facilities and a cancelled TSP or two.

Unfortunately our leadership is still fighting the Cold War Mig err Sukoi hoard and prepping for Cold War 2 with China rather than caring about these lowly issues.

[sqwatch]

RPAs are in the suck because in reality, nobody except the dudes who fly them and the people who get their feed care 2 sh-ts about them.

I give 5/5 sh-ts

as a deployed guy flying in the stack with UAVs, I hope they are on station when I show up.

most uav drivers will agree (me included) that they bring plenty to the fight. this being

my first time deployed, i now realize how much I underestimated how much droids contribute.

It was never the mission (unsustainable schedule excluded) that made life

miserable.

[nsplayr]

I still want a permanent indoor GCS on the top floor of One World Trade Center in NYC tasked with smoking bad guys 24/7. NYC is already the city that never sleeps, let's make sure terrorists don't ever get to sleep either.

[FlyinGrunt]

That is the best RPA idea I have ever heard. Bravo, sir.

[fox two]

Pentagon to increase CAPs from 61 to 90 by 2019

 

[Breckey]

Looks like the Army will be picking up some at least

[SurelySerious]

Pentagon to increase CAPs from 61 to 90 by 2019

 

What could go wrong?

[FishBowl]

Well, that would explain them calling back OTS non-selects and asking if they would take RPA slots. Additionally, they are holding an RPA-only OTS board this fall/winter (16RPAOT). Godspeed, droid bros. 

[HU&W]

Looks like the Army will be picking up some at least

Yup, using the assets they've already got under the operating paradigm that's expected from the AF.  It'll likely prove interesting.

[SurelySerious]

Yup, using the assets they've already got under the operating paradigm that's expected from the AF.  It'll likely prove interesting.

Getting them to not operate under the organic asset model will absolutely be interesting.

[guineapigfury]

We cannot adequately man the Active Duty CAPs we have now, and all indications point to us never being able to.  Putting the CAP increase on outside agencies is a rare acknowledgement of the gravity of the manning situation.  Now we just need to adjust the plan for contractor CAPs from 10/90 to 90/90.

[Azimuth]

I just got a AFPC robot email at work talking about a new SNCO only commissioning program to rated officer. Dunno if they're waiving the age thing because I don't know too many SNCO's under 30 years old.

[HU&W]

I just got a AFPC robot email at work talking about a new SNCO only commissioning program to rated officer. Dunno if they're waiving the age thing because I don't know too many SNCO's under 30 years old.

Yes (rumint is that it's waived to 35ish).

[TnkrToad]

Pentagon to increase CAPs from 61 to 90 by 2019

 

Getting them to not operate under the organic asset model will absolutely be interesting.

So, the article says that the increase will be met with "the Army contributing as many as 16 and the military's Special Forces Command pitching in with as many as four." I assume Special Forces Command is SOCOM . . . which means either the 160th or AFSOC--which (last I checked) belong to the Army and Air Force, respectively. I assume the 160th won't add an additional 4 CAPs beyond whatever it provides now, especially if it continues to operate under the same organic model it currently employs--which would mean AFSOC will get to take on that additional requirement. Some thoughts:

- The Army's plan to expand its RPA fleet by 16 CAPs within 4 years will demonstrate how invalid the organic model is. They'll destroy their RPA community if they keep them forward-deployed in theater, collocated with their users. Hopefully they'll "see the light" and move toward the Air Force distributed ops model . . . of course, if they go with the distributed ops model, then they'll largely invalidate their excuse for maintaining their own, separate RPA fleet.

- SOCOM's plan to provide an additional 4 CAPs within 4 years indicates that AFSOC will get the "opportunity" to grow its RPA fleet even more. The 160th won't cover the additional 4 CAPs SOCOM has promised, so the Air Force won't get a break from COCOM requirements--they'll just shift the requirement from ACC RPAs to AFSOC RPAs. The reduction in Air Force CAPs will be more shell game than reality 

- The plan to have contractors provide 10 more CAPs seems equally suspect; most likely the operators for those CAPs will be prior-mil folks, enticed away from the service by better pay & QOL in the civil sector. Even if the Air Force grows its RPA community numerically, it'll be awfully difficult to grow its experience base--at least in the near term

I'm spitballing with all the above--I know little beyond what the article says and prior discussions on this board--but the DoD's math just doesn't add up. Anybody have additional insight into how the RPA expansion plan might realistically work? Is anyone optimistic that the Army will finally get a clue and abandon the organic support model?

TT