And this includes current UAV pilots themselves.
There, we at Remotepilot.com said it! Somebody had to.
Look at the faces of the guys at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada working 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week, 120 days straight. Are their eyes "smiling" like these guys were getting serviced at a Nevada brothel?
No way, these guys want to be back in the air doing something they love -- "pushing" an F-18 or F-15. Then their eyes'll probably start to "smile" again.
Look at the higher ups in the Air Force, themselves mostly fliers. Here's how they talk about UAVs:
"They (UAVs) are part of a growing area in the Air Force (blah), ...look at the tech involved with them (blah), ...the guys at the Pentagon love us (blah)."
Yes, truly inspirational, impassioned words; they make young people want to devote their lives to something great -- like being full-time glue sniffers.
Seriously, though, Remotepilot.com will say that Air Force higher-ups do at least accord UAVs begrudging respect in one regard: for the aerial "persistence" which their platform affords
Problem is, dogs are "persistent." The guys who knock on our doors selling security systems are "persistent." That fact that a lot of people in Afghanistan don't bathe -- that's "persistent." Just because something is "persistent" doesn't mean it engenders any sort of love.
Given that the U.S. Air Force want's to almost triple the number of UAV pilots by 2012, Remotepilot.com thinks the US Air Force needs to secure the "sales-services" of people who -- in some cases -- do potentially love what UAVs do: Army, Navy, Marine "combat team" members in Afghanistan as well as the Air Force's own Special Tactics personnel.
These are the guys who may see UAVs as literally a gift -- a flying one -- that keeps on giving. These are the guys who can tell a bunch of 20 year old Air Force Cadets why they are the $hit for devoting their careers to driving UAVs instead of opting for "sphincter-duty" aboard come-and-go "Bomb-Cats."
No flier in the U.S. Air Force loves UAVs, yet the service demands an almost tripling of the number of UAV pilots in the next three years. Remotepilot.com says the Air Force should look to ground combatants in-house -- but mostly in the other services -- to make the case to Air Force Cadets who are undecided or put-off by the idea of driving UAVs.
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