Air Force Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) Warrant Officers: Meeting Requirements while Reducing Costs

DoD budget cuts require the Air Force to look for new ways to cut costs while still meeting mission requirements. Implementation of a flight Warrant Officer WO career field would decrease personnel costs while meeting the demand for additional RPA pilots driven by increasing ISR mission requirements. All service branches except the Air Force currently utilize WOs. Both enlisted and WO equivalent pilots were used by the Army Air Corps during World War II. The Army and Navy have WO pilot programs providing a specific template for their reintroduction into the Air Force. This study describes how RPA pilots are currently trained and how WOs could fill the same role now met by commissioned officers. Using WOs as RPA pilots would result in reduced annual and lifetime personnel costs compared to commissioned officers. Utilizing the Army aviation model with two-thirds of RPA pilots being WOs provides technical specialists capable of performing the mission while reducing annual personnel costs by approximately 13.4 million.