UNMANNED: In 2006, the Air Force was able to fly only 12 drones at a time. Today, the service flies 34 regular combat air patrols. Mel Melcon / Los Angeles TimesFrom L.A. Times:
The Pentagon is graduating its first class of drone pilots from the elite Air Force Weapons School in an attempt to keep the best in the air grounded in the fast-growing fighting program.
Reporting from Washington -- The Pentagon is preparing to graduate its first pilots of unmanned drones from the elite U.S. Air Force Weapons School -- a version of the Navy's Top Gun program -- in a bid to elevate the skills and status of the officers who fly Predators, one of the military's fastest growing aircraft programs.
The elite flight schools of the Air Force and Navy are most closely associated with smart, tough fighter jocks. But over the course of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the MQ-1 Predator and more heavily armed MQ-9 Reaper craft have become, to many in the Pentagon, the most important aircraft the U.S. has deployed.
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My Comment: These guys (and gals) have to be very good.