KIRLTAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- A special missions aviation evaluator at Kirtland is on his way to becoming one of the first 10 enlisted Airmen to serve as pilots since World War II.
Tech. Sgt. Michael Brooks of the 512th Rescue Squadron expects to begin pilot training in October, with the end goal of flying the RQ-4 Global Hawk drone. He’s scheduled to graduate from pilot training in the fall of 2017.
Brooks, a Virginia native with 13 years of service, has been evaluating special missions aviation students with the 58th Special Operations Wing.
He applied for a slot in the pilot training early this year. An Air Force Personnel Center selection board chose him and five other Airmen from across the Air Force for the first group of trainees, plus another four to follow them.
“It’s something new, a new initiative that the Air Force is doing, so I’d like to be part of that,” he said.
According to a Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs release, incorporating enlisted pilots is the first step in developing new operating concepts within intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). The Global Hawk community is the most stable in remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) and offers a chance to integrate enlisted Airmen to help the force be ready for dynamic operating environments.
“Looking at new ways to operate within our RPA enterprise is critical, given that ISR missions continue to be the No. 1 most-requested capability by our combatant commanders. We expect that will only continue to expand,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein in the release. “We know our enlisted Airmen are ready to take on this important mission as we determine the right operational balance of officer and enlisted in this ISR enterprise for the future.”
Brooks said creating an enlisted pilot corps would build a bridge between enlisted personnel and officers, something like the Army’s warrant officer program.
He’s particularly looking forward to the initial training “because we’ll be flying and doing things enlisted hasn’t done before.”
He and his classmates will begin by learning to fly small manned planes, like any other Air Force pilot in training. The difference, he said, is that future drone pilots do more solo and cross-country flights than students going into manned aircraft to get as many hours as possible in the air before moving to drones.
“The basis is to build a better core of piloting before they go into that other realm,” he said.
According to the release, enlisted drone pilots must be career enlisted aviators with a rank of staff sergeant through senior master sergeant, able to stay in the Air Force six years after pilot training and not previously declined for the training.
The training plan could have 12 enlisted drone pilots graduating in fiscal year 2017, 30 pilots the next two years and 28 graduating in 2020. By then, according to the release, 70 percent of Global Hawk pilots are expected to be enlisted personnel.