Download or read book Stress and Dissatisfaction in the Air Force s Remotely Piloted Aircraft Community written by Chaitra M. Hardison and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Prepared for the Air Force Special Operations Command"--Title page.
Download or read book Psychological Health Outcomes Within USAF Remotely Piloted Aircraft Support Career Fields written by Kris Anthony Ostrowski and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Remotely piloted aircraft are not commonplace in modern warfare. Enlisted intelligence personnel in the U.S. Air Force (USAF) who supported these activities have reported personal accounts of posttraumatic stress and fatigue, possibly due to viewing high-definition, full-motion-video, remote warfare. Rates of mental health diagnoses and counseling are unknown in this population. Incidence rates of 12 specific mental health outcomes were calculated for all enlisted active duty USAF Intelligence Specialists in the 1N1 and 1N- career fields from 1 January 2006 through 31 December 2010, while considering various demographic and military variables. The incidence rates were compared to RPA sensor operators and aircraft armament technicians that have similar initial and subsequent psychiatric medical standards and occupational scheduling demands as enlisted active duty USAF intelligence specialists, but differ in the viewing of high-definition, full-motion-video, remote warfare. Unadjusted incidence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder among RPA intelligence specialists (n=7,988), RPA sensor operators (n=196), and aircraft armament technician (n=11,340) were 3.4 per 1,000 person-years, 2.0 per 1,000 person years, respectively. Incidence rate ratios, adjusted for age, gender, time in service, and number of deployments, for posttraumatic stress disorder were: 1) 1.34, 95% confidence interval = 0.19-9.64, for RPA intelligence specialists compared to RPA sensor operators, 2) 1.83, 95% confidence interval = 1.31-.2.55, for RPA intelligence specialists compared to aircraft armament technicians, and 3) 1.36, 95% confidence interval = 0.19-9.85, for RPA sensor operators compared to aircraft armament technicians. Enlisted RPA intelligence specialists displayed significantly higher incidence rates for substance abuse/dependence, family circumstance problems, and maltreatment related mental health categories, and for all mental health outcomes combined compared to RPA sensor operators after adjusting for differences in the two cohorts. Enlisted RPA intelligence specialists also displayed statistically higher incidence rates for life circumstance problems and posttraumatic stress disorder as compared to aircraft armament technicians after adjusting for differences in the two cohorts. Within the surveillance period, RPA intelligence specialists experienced 1.83 times (p
Download or read book Prevalence of High Emotional Distress and Symptoms of Post traumatic Stress Disorder in U S Air Force Active Duty Remotely Piloted Aircraft Operators written by Wayne Chappelle and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 15 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The demand for United States Air Force (USAF) remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and weapons-strike operations has led to the necessity of sustaining around-the-clock operations in support of critical missions on the battlefield and around the globe. Because of the novel and unique nature of weapons-bearing RPA operations, there is a wide range of opinions among military and medical leadership as to the sources, levels, and impact of stress among RPA operators (pilots, sensor operators, and mission intelligence coordinators) affecting performance capabilities. The purpose of this study is to (a) identify the main sources of self-reported occupational stress among such operators, (b) use standardized self-report questionnaires to identify rates of clinical distress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), (c) compare findings with local non-RPA operator airmen (logistics and support units from the same geographic locations), and (d) identify demographic and occupational stressors that correlate with (or are predictive of) clinical distress and PTSD among Predator/Reaper operators."--Executive summary, page 1.
Download or read book Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems written by Nancy J. Cooke and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-10-31 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Highlights the human components of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, their interactions with the technology and each other, and the implications of human capabilities and limitations for the larger system Considers human factors issues associated with RPAS, but within the context of a very large system of people, other vehicles, policy, safety concerns, and varying applications Chapters have been contributed by world class experts in HSI and those with operational RPAS experience Considers unintended consequences associated with taking a more myopic view of this system Examines implications for practice, policy, and research Considers both civil and military aspects of RPAS
Download or read book Status of the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Programs Departments of the Air Force and Army written by United States. General Accounting Office and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Swarm the Cloud and the Importance of Getting There First written by U. S. Military and published by . This book was released on 2017-09-17 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For all the ink spilled over remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) technology, knowledge of RPA culture remains in its infancy. Continuing the debate about culture, we argue first for the urgency of achieving manned-remote fusion in air warfare. Second, we maintain that the limiting factor in realizing that future is not technological but cultural. That is, until the RPA community finds its voice and place in the larger service, this evolution of airpower remains unlikely. The task at hand does not call for reinventing airpower but rediscovering it. Many of our Air Force greats have much to say about building a culture of technical warriors. We simply need to apply the ideas of Gen Henry "Hap" Arnold and those like him to the enterprise of remote aviation.
Download or read book Methodologies for Analyzing Remotely Piloted Aircraft in Future Roles and Missions written by Sherrill Lee Lingel and published by RAND Corporation. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. Air Force's remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) have played a significant role in current operations in Southwest Asia. As the inventory of RPAs increases and new sensor technologies come online in the coming years, the Air Force has an opportunity to consider additional roles for these aircraft. Thoughtful study into these possibilities will ensure that, when the Air Force employs RPAs, they will help fill capability gaps or augment existing capabilities in moreefficient or more-effective ways. The purpose of this documented briefing is to describe a suite of tools developed by RAND Project AIR FORCE (PAF) to help the Air Force think through future roles for RPAs. It describes tools to evaluate platform selection and concept of operations (CONOPS) development, sensor performance against various targets, weapon effects, environmental factors, platform survivability, computational processing of data, and exploitation of sensor products. This document also explains how the separate analysis in each of these areas feeds into a mission level analysis, performed with PAF's Systems and CONOPS Operational Effectiveness Model (SCOPEM), and a campaign-level analysis using PAF's Force Structure Effectiveness (FSE) model. Use of these tools and models will help clarify how future RPAs can contribute to U.S. warfighting in cost-effective ways. The tools presented here are also useful for examining the effectiveness of new capabilities more broadly (e.g., directed energy weapons or electronic warfare capabilities); examining the effectiveness of new platforms in the context of the entire intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) force posture; and evaluating the most cost-effective ISR force structure to meet future operational needs.
Download or read book Challenges and Opportunities for Air Force Remotely Piloted Aircraft written by Brien Alkire and published by . This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Grounding the RPA Force written by Charles M. Washuk and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The 2015 Air Force Future Operating Concept, presents an overarching framework as to how the Air Force will provide global vigilance, reach, and power through the application of “operational agility” to meet and resolve challenges in the year 2035. More recently, the Air Force published its Air Superiority 2030 Flight Plan, which calls for an integrated “family of systems” to achieve air and space superiority in future conflicts. A significant part of the solution in both publications involves the application of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) in a combat role to accomplish mission objectives. While RPAs have been in use for over a decade, the demand for their employment has been drastically increasing. The amount of trained personnel required to operate attack RPAs, however, has been on the decline, generating a manning crisis in this career field. Grueling operational hours, the introduction of mental and emotional stressors, the perception of inequality amongst peers, and lower school and promotion selection rates have led to highly qualified RPA operators ejecting from the Air Force after completion of their service commitment. As a result, the current RPA pilot retention rates will prevent the Air Force from meeting the demand of 2035, even with the advancements of technology. This research paper proposes that the Air Force needs to transform the RPA pilot career field and provide the same advancement opportunities as the rest of the Air Force pilot community to improve retention and recruitment. Specifically, it should address how the RPA community is advertised to the world, how RPA candidates are trained and consider renaming the career field altogether. Failing to address the problems facing the RPA force may cause the Air Force to continue on its path of fostering a toxic relationship from within the pilot community, lose experienced Airmen, and ultimately be unable to meet the challenges it will face in 2035"--Abstract.
Download or read book Remotely Piloted Aircraft and War in the Public Relations Domain written by United States United States Air Force and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-12-06 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The well-intentioned author of the article "The Killing Ma-chines," which appeared in the Atlantic last year, offers a lengthy description of a Hellfire missile strike by a remotely piloted aircraft (RPA). The story's protagonist, a "19-year-old American soldier" who entered Air Force basic military training straight out of high school, became an MQ-1 Predator crew member upon graduation. Reportedly, on his very first mission at the controls, the "young pilot" observed a troops-in-contact situation on the ground. The "colonel, watching over his shoulder, said, 'They're pinned down pretty good. They're gonna be screwed if you don't do something.' " The narrative goes on to describe the Hellfire missile strike and the psychological effect it had on the Airman. To a sophisticated military audience, the factual inconsistencies in this account are apparent. Air Force RPAs are crewed by Airmen, not Soldiers. The 19-year-old Airman (an enlisted rank) cannot be an Air Force pilot (an officer rating). The article claims that during his first time at the controls, this Airman finds himself on a combat mission in-theater. In reality, he would have become familiar with the controls at initial qualification training, prior to arriving at his first combat squadron. Furthermore, when colonels speak to Airmen about life-and-death combat decisions, they tend to do so in terms of direct orders rather than leading suggestions. How can Mark Bowden, notable historian and author of such well-received books as Black Hawk Down, commit such factual errors? The answer is simple. Information about Air Force RPA operations is rarely available-and when it is, it usually proves unreliable. This article contends that because an information vacuum exists with respect to US RPA operations, well-meaning people cannot gain adequate knowledge to develop and share an informed opinion on the most important RPA questions. It calls this dearth of information "the epistemic problem."
Download or read book Air Force written by Brenda S. Farrell and published by . This book was released on with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 2008, the Air Force has more than tripled the number of its active-duty pilots flying remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs), which is the term the Air Force uses to refer to unmanned aerial systems such as the MQ-1 Predator. Due to increases in demand, RPA pilots have had a significant increase in workload since 2007. This report reviewed the Air Force's approach to managing its RPA pilots as well as their quality of life and promotion rates. It evaluated the extent to which the Air Force (1) has used a strategic human-capital approach to manage RPA pilots; (2) has addressed concerns, if any, about the working conditions of RPA pilots that may affect their quality of life; and (3) analyzes the promotion rates of RPA pilots. Table and figures. This is a print on demand report.
Download or read book Normalizing RPA Operations written by Calvin B. Powell and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The United States Air Force Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) community developed under a state of constant combat-surge operations and is rapidly approaching 65 sustained RPA combat air patrols (CAPs). As a result of this combat focus, the community has not experienced normalized garrison operations. As the requirements in United States Central Command's (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR) begin to lessen, other Geographic Combatant Commanders (GCCs) are requesting additional RPAs. This transitional phase provides an opportunity to normalize RPA operations. The Air Force should take advantage of this shift in global operations to establish a normalized steady state operational framework for the RPA community. To accomplish this, the USAF must ensure consistent strategic emphasis on RPA steady state sustainability and readiness, counter poor international and domestic public perceptions of RPAs, provide operational priority to dedicated training, and establish a method for centralized global management that maximizes RPAs' inherent economies of scale. These steps are necessary to facilitate full spectrum readiness for all geographic combatant commands."--Abstract.
Download or read book Towards Predicting Completion for United States Air Force USAF Remotely Piloted Aircraft RPA Training written by Jade B. Driggs and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Civilian and military use of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) has significantly increased in recent years. Specifically, the United States Air Force (USAF) has an insatiable demand for RPA operations, that are responsible for fulfilling critical demands in every theater 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (United States Air Force, 2015). Around the clock operations have led to a manning shortage of RPA pilots in the USAF. The USAF MQ-9 0́−Reaper0́+ Weapons School trains tactical experts and leaders of Airmen skilled in the art of integrated battle-space dominance (United States Air Force, 2015). Weapons Officers for the MQ-9 platform are also critically under-manned, with only 17% of allocated slots filled (B. Callahan, personal communication, January 28, 2016). Furthermore, the leading cause of training attrition has been attributed to lack of critical thinking and problem solving skills (B. Callahan, personal communication, January 28, 2016); skills not directly screened for prior to entering the RPA pilot career field. The proposed study seeks to discover patterns of student behaviors in the brief and debrief process in Weapons School, with the goal of identifying the competencies that distinguish the top students in Weapons School.
Download or read book Building Developing Air Forces Around Remotely Piloted Aircraft written by Ryan Weisiger and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "With the price of aircraft continuing to increase as more capable technology is added onto platforms, the cost to develop an air force is continually on the rise. A cost-effective way to build an air force is through Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA). These platforms offer a diverse set of capabilities at significantly reduced cost, and their capabilities will continue to expand over time. The purpose of this research paper is to show that developing countries, with limited budgets, can build an air force around RPAs instead of more expensive alternatives. Africa is the test case for this paper because of its unique security situation. Most African countries focus on internal security threats instead of external threats. Internal and non-state actor security issues such as terrorism, drug trafficking, piracy, organized criminal activities, and migration plague Africa's ungoverned spaces. RPA distinguishing characteristics make them well suited for critical infrastructure protection, counter-piracy, counter-drug, disaster relief, humanitarian aid, search and rescue, and counter-terrorism missions. All these missions apply directly to the irregular threats from non-state actors in Africa today. When comparing RPAs to manned aircraft there is a significant savings over the lifetime of the aircraft from initial procurement, sustainment, and training. The two main obstacles to developing nations wanting to build an air force around RPAs are strict export policies and regulations, and the integration of RPAs into the national airspace. Recommended changes to the Missile Technology Control Regime can open up the US defense industry to export RPAs, and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has targeted 2020 to produce a MQ-9 variant able to fly unrestricted in national airspace. With these two changes implemented, the conditions for developing countries to build an air force around RPA capabilities will be set."--Abstract.
Download or read book Optimizing the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Pilot Career Field written by Erik D. Jorgensen and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Air Force recently established a new "18X" RPA pilot air force specialty code (AFSC), separate from the traditional "11X" pilot AFSC. Graduates of the new 18X RPA pilot training syllabus receive limited flight training and do not hold the same aeronautical ratings of their traditional Air Force pilot colleagues in operational RPA squadrons. This paper explores two questions that are important to the success of the growing community of 18X pilots by using a problem/solution framework: First, what is the optimal rate of 18X pilot production? Second, what actions will foster the development of 18X leaders within the RPA community? Two rates of 18X pilot production are assessed using the limitations common to traditional pilot production. One is a conservative pilot-production rate and the other is a maximized rate. Despite technological challenges, a maximized rate will best meet the time-critical demand for RPA pilots. It will also increase 18X leadership opportunities and foster the development of an 18X "warrior culture."--Abstract.
Download or read book Report on Operating Next generation Remotely Piloted Aircraft for Irregular Warfare written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 91 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Air Force (AF) tasked the SAB to examine how the AF operates remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) for irregular warfare, and make recommendations for reducing manning, enhancing operational effectiveness, and planning for future operations. The Study Panel observed 1) approximately 70 percent of the manning requirements represent exploiters and maintainers and are expected to grow, 2) manually intensive airspace deconfliction and management is inefficient, will not scale, and hampers manned/unmanned integration, 3) RPAs contribute to minimizing collateral damage because of persistence, increased "eyes on target", and use of focused lethality munitions, and 4) inexpensive and proliferating kinetic and electronic threats are an increasing RPA concern. Findings include 1) insufficient and inflexible platform and sensor automation, 2) poorly-designed operator control stations, 3) limited communications systems to address interoperability, lostlink, and scaling, 4) inadequate selection criteria and training, and 5) CONOPS and TTPs that lagged systems. Based on these findings, the Panel recommends the AF 1) improve automation to enable variable levels of autonomy, 2) enhance operator control stations, 3) create robust communications systems, 4) develop targeted selection and enhanced training, 5) improve CONOPS and TTPs, and support distributed operations, and 6) improve the transfer of ACTD results to acquisitions.
Download or read book A Human Factors Analysis of USAF Remotely Piloted Aircraft Mishaps written by Naval Postgraduate School and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-08-24 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the effort to demonstrate the viability and effectiveness of Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) systems continues, there is an increasing demand for improved total system performance; specifically, reduced mishap rates. The USAF MQ-1 and MQ-9 have produced lifetime mishap rates of 7.58 and 4.58 mishaps per 100,000 flight hours, respectively. To improve the understanding of RPA mishap epidemiology, an analysis was completed on USAF MQ-1 and MQ-9 RPA mishaps from 2006-2011. The dataset included 88 human error-related mishaps that were coded using the DoD Human Factors Analysis and Classification System. The specific research question was: Do the types of active failures (unsafe acts) and latent failures (preconditions, unsafe supervision, and organizational influences) differ between the MQ-1 and MQ-9 when operated with the same Ground Control Station (GCS)? The single inclusion of Organizational Climate (organizational influence) in the Level II logistic regression model suggests that there is not a statistically significant difference in RPA-type mishaps with regard to human error. These results suggest that human performance requirements should be coupled to the GCS and not aircraft type. The models have the promise to inform RPA certification standards and future system designs.
