Leadership: A Feature, Not a Problem
5th September 2019
U.S. Army aviation is catching the air force disease as it finds itself with a persistent shortage of lower-ranking pilots. The shortage is not great, about 700 pilots short out of a total of 14,000 active duty and reserve pilots. The problem is that the army has two types of pilots. The minority are commissioned officers who, among junior officers (lieutenants, captains and some majors) fly a lot because they command the actual flying units (platoons and companies). As these officers get promoted to lieutenant colonel and colonel they fly a lot less because they spend most of their time commanding larger units or in staff jobs. Most of the actual flying is done by warrant officers, a type of officer used mainly by the army because these officers do not command. They make a career of a technical specialty, in this case flying. The warrants have four ranks that correspond in pay to the first four officer ranks (second lieutenant, first lieutenant, captain and major). The more senior warrants are expert fliers because normally that is all they do. This is a major advantage for the army because they have always attracted the many pilots who just want to fly and have no interest in commanding units, staff jobs or rising to higher rank.