Pilots without full combat training and only 30 hours of basic flying training are apparently set to control frontline missions in a major change in RAF policy.
Experienced airmen will be replaced by relatively inexperienced personnel controlling unmanned ‘drones’ for surveillance missions over Afghanistan.
Drones generally carry laser-guided bombs and air-to-ground missiles to engage targets they spot and are currently flown by remote control by highly trained fighter pilots. However, RAF chiefs have reportedly approved a money-saving plan to use ‘lower grade’ staff rather than those who have undergone the full fighter pilot programme.
We don’t necessarily need highly trained pilots.
Studies have apparently shown that the best drone crews are often young video game players rather than experienced combat air crews.
And experienced pilots still manage to hit the wrong target and kill innocent civilians, or their own troops! Brilliant, turn war into just another video game.