The Senate Armed Services Committee’s top Republican and Democrat are calling for the Defense Department to standardize drone pilot training.
“We are disturbed that the Department of Defense has no standardized training program for UAS pilots and personnel,” SASC Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) wrote in a May 27 letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. “The continued lack of consistent and uniform training standards is simply unacceptable. In addition to collecting critical intelligence, the Department’s UAS [unmanned aerial system] programs carry out sensitive strike missions that should require high standards and specialized training.”
The letter was prompted by a recent Government Accountability Office report, which found that military UAS training programs have been hindered by instructor shortfalls and insufficient training.
Currently, all four services have put in place different UAS training curriculums and varied policies on who is allowed to become a drone pilot. For instance, all services except for the Army allow manned aircraft pilots to fly unmanned aircraft.
Despite efforts to increase the number of UAS pilots and instructors in the Army and Air Force, both services lack the manpower needed to keep up with demands. To mitigate these shortages, the Army has sometimes lowered training standards to increase instructor availability, McCain and Reed wrote.
“This action, coupled with pulling enlisted UAS pilots off-task to perform unrelated additional duties, has resulted in UAS pilots receiving insufficient flying training and causing negative impacts on UAS unit readiness levels,” the letter stated.
McCain and Reed’s letter seems to call for a one-size-fits-all approach to UAS instruction, a move that is more aggressive than the GAO’s recommendation that suggested increased information sharing.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness Daniel Feehan told GAO during that its review that greater coordination among the services could improve UAS pilot training by sharing best practices. For instance, the Army’s Gray Eagle and Air Force’s Predator, both manufactured by General Atomics, share similar features, as do the Navy’s Triton and Air Force’s Global Hawk, which are made by Northrop Grumman (NOC), the report said.
However, the military has no clear mechanism to allow for collaboration among the services’ training programs, the GAO noted.
“Until DoD issues a UAS training strategy that addresses if and how the services should coordinate with one another to share information on training UAS pilots, the services may miss opportunities to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of this training,” the report said. GAO recommended that the Pentagon include language addressing interservice collaboration in the UAS pilot training strategy currently being drafted by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
Feehan concurred with that recommendation, adding that the draft strategy will be revised to address the need for greater coordination.