It's also a culture issue.
The Army is having no problems with teenaged UAV pilots who are enlisted. The operating paramaters and difficulty of certain UAV systems may well be different and require an expereinced pilot, but this is not the way things are headded.
Army enlisted teenagers have a better track record than rated USAF pilots on not bending the birds. No, I'm not kidding.
1) Apparently the kiddos are willing to let the drone autopilot more often. They're comfortable punching in "Point A, Point B, go" Rated pilots tend to statistically want more direct control, which increases the likelihood of an accident.
2) The teens have autoland on their UAV's. The USAF expressly did not want that feature. Single biggest cause of UAV fatalities is landing.
3) Culture. The Army kiddos love their shiney UAV's and it's not unlikely they know at least someone that they are supporting. It's a voluntary MOS, with a lot of folks who want to do it. Few if any US Army UAV operators were forced into the job. USAF pilots tend to be less than pleased about being assigned to UAV duty. I'm not claiming the USAF personnel are unprofessional, but motivation does matter.
And I've never heard it publicly stated, but I think communication matters. The teens piloting a UAV tend to be deployed in theater. USAF domestically operate deployed UAV's. The kiddos generally have more complete information as they're physically in the same country as the UAV's, as they are often within stone's throw of the TOC if not in the same building.
Another problem for the USAF is that the US Army did not fully disclose information and lessons learned to the USAF. It has been alleged that this was retaliation for the USAF trying to dismantle the US Army UAV project.
LC, you remember John Young's comments?
Disclaimer: I work for a UAV manufacturer. All comments and opinions are my own, and I do not speak for any current, past or future employers.
