Air Force Training

Delaying Pilot Training Could Avert Unnecessary Costs Gao ID: NSIAD-94-38 November 3, 1993

Although it has reduced the rate at which new pilots are produced, the Air Force is training more pilots than it needs and is incurring costs unnecessarily. More pilots are graduating from pilot training than there are cockpit assignments available. As a result, about half of the pilots completing the program are being temporarily assigned to nonflying positions--for up to three years--while waiting for cockpit assignments to open up. The Air Force incurs unnecessary costs because the pilots (1) take requalification training before they advance to weapon system training and (2) receive aviation career incentive pay while in their nonflying positions. In addition, the pilots' careers are shortened by about one-third, reducing the usefulness of the Air Force's investment in pilot training. GAO found that the Air Force will spend about $311 million on 757 pilots who it could have delayed from entering the training program but chose not to. GAO notes that the Air Force could incur another $195 million in such costs for about 500 pilots who are expected to enter the training program after July 1993 and subsequently be assigned temporarily to nonflying positions. GAO recommends that the Air Force reinstate delayed entry into the pilot training program until enough cockpit assignments become available to absorb these candidates.

GAO found that: (1) the Air Force is training more pilots than it needs for current cockpit assignments; (2) about one-half of the graduating pilots are temporarily assigned to nonflying positions for up to 3 years while waiting for advanced training; (3) the Air Force is incurring unnecessary costs of about $311 million or more for these nonflying pilots because of requalification training and aviation career incentive pay; (4) the Air Force does not receive the full benefit of pilot training because of the reduced time some pilots spend in flying positions during their careers; (5) during fiscal years (FY) 1991 and 1992, the Air Force delayed candidates from entering into its undergraduate pilot training (UPT) program, but it no longer does this because of the anticipated pilot shortage in FY 1995 and its desire to use the UPT infrastructure fully and ensure leadership development; (6) the Department of Defense expects to complete its analysis of a potential pilot shortage and other aviator personnel issues by December 1993; (7) pilot requirements could be met by nonflying pilots; and (8) the Air Force's plan to assign 500 UPT program candidates to flying positions may not effectively alleviate the problem of excess pilots.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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