Military Personnel: Actions Needed to Better Define Pilot Requirements and Promote Retention
NSIAD-99-211
Published: Aug 20, 1999. Publicly Released: Aug 20, 1999.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the reasons for the reported military pilot shortages, focusing on: (1) the services' reported and projected estimates of their pilot shortages; (2) the basis for the services' pilot requirements; (3) key factors that account for the reported pilot shortages; and (4) concerns that are causing pilots to consider leaving the military.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should direct the services to develop criteria and detailed job descriptions for designating positions to be filled with pilots, classify the positions according to their operational and flying status, and specify the types of duties that make pilots essential. Moreover, for jobs that are held for pilots based on reasons of career development and rotation, descriptions should contain a clear justification. |
Closed – Not Implemented
DOD reports that, while it partially concurs with the recommendation, it prefers the military services' current methodologies used to identify, verify, and staff rated billets.
|
| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should direct the services to, using the newly developed criteria, analyze each pilot position to identify those positions where active duty pilots are not required and take the necessary actions to fill those positions with other personnel possessing appropriate expertise, such as warrant officers, retired military, contractors, Department of Defense civilians, reservists, or navigators. |
Closed – Implemented
The Air Force approved a strategy for filling rated headquarters staff vacancies and is making progress with meeting the rated staff officer shortfalls with personnel other than active duty pilots. The Air Force's major commands have corrected 207 billets for civilian fill, filled 132 positions, and committed to 13 additional positions. Twenty positions were filled by limited recall of reserve officers.
|
| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should direct the services to revise their databases so that the services can: (1) uniformly report data on future pilot requirements and inventories; and (2) identify any imbalances in their operational and nonoperational flying and nonflying positions. |
Closed – Not Implemented
DOD reports that (1) it does not see any advantages to having a single, standardized database for all the military services, and (2) current manpower and requirements products meet its requirements.
|
| Department of Defense | To the extent that shortages exist after these recommendations are implemented, the Secretary of Defense should direct the services to fully evaluate the merits of a fly-only career path for a segment of the pilot community. In the short term, identify those pilots desiring additional flying duty and match them to this extra duty to the extent possible. |
Closed – Not Implemented
DOD cites past studies of the fly-only track by each of the services as showing that different challenges arise that they will have to address. However, DOD does not plan to conduct follow-up work on GAO's recommendation at this time.
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| Department of Defense | To the extent that shortages exist after these recommendations are implemented, the Secretary of Defense should direct the services to only offer the aviation continuation pay bonus to those pilots who make affirmative decisions to continue their career rather than to all pilots reaching specified gates. This would preclude the bonus program from being interpreted as an entitlement. |
Closed – Not Implemented
No action is intended.
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Topics
Aircraft pilotsAttrition ratesEmployment opportunitiesJob classificationMilitary personnel retentionJob satisfaction surveysMilitary enlistmentMilitary personnelMilitary recruitingMilitary reenlistment bonusesProjectionsStaff utilization