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ITEC 2017: USAF graduates first enlisted RPA crew

10th May 2017 - 11:01 GMT | by Trevor Nash in London

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The whole question of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) has raised heated debate about who should fly them; officer pilots or non-commissioned officer non-pilots. Due to the shortage of fast-jet pilots and a long awaited realisation that RPA crews do not need to be officer pilots with thousands of flight hours, the USAF has now graduated its first NCO RPA operators.

The three NCOs completed their undergraduate RPA training programme at Joint Base (JB) San Antonio-Randolph in Texas.

The graduates came from a cohort of 12 enlisted candidates that were selected from the USAF in December 2015, for a new initiative

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