US drone fleet at “breaking point” over operator shortage

US drone fleet at “breaking point” over operator shortage

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US drone fleet at breaking point over operator shortage

An increasing use of aerial unmanned systems by the U.S armed forces creates severe problems.

An internal service memo reveals that the US Air Force combat missions operability is stretched to the limit due to a persistent lack of qualified personnel.

According to RT, the US Air Force has no shortage of MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper assault drones, yet it is running out of experienced drone operators, making those in the ranks working flat out, The Daily Beast reports, citing an internal service memo.

It indicated that the Air Combat Command (ACC) cannot keep up with educating and training new personnel to satisfy Pentagon’s ever-growing demand for drone flights.

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A senior service official told The Daily Beast that this situation had been “at the breaking point, and has been for a long time,” and that it has only worsened because “Band-Aid fixes are no longer working.”

The Air Force is being forced to strip its own drone operator schools of experienced instructors and put them operating assault drones on combat missions over Syria and Iraq, the memo revealed. It resulted in leaving Formal Training Units (FTU) with less than a half of instructors they need to teach future drone operators.

The skilled operators that were sent as enforcement to operational squadrons that are flying combat missions have reportedly put their careers at stake, because they failed to attend required professional military education courses.