The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is recommending the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps reevaluate fighter pilot squadron requirements.
Officials said the GAO’s assessment and recommendation stems from the Air Force, Navy Marine Corps having gaps between the actual numbers of fighter pilots and authorizations, or funded positions, in fiscal years 2013 through 2017.
The GAO’s report assessed the extent to which military services had differences in the number of fighter pilots compared to authorizations, and the extent to which the military services had reevaluated squadron requirements for the number of fighter pilots needed, including consideration of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) pilot requirements.
While officials said squadron requirements are to be reviewed on a two-year schedule and updated as conditions change, they acknowledged they have not updated all squadron requirements within the last two years.
GAO officials said their work involved analyzing military service personnel data, documentation on service initiatives to address factors contributing to fighter pilot shortages and service documentation of requirements; meetings with a non-generalizable sample of fighter pilots at seven locations; and interviews with Department of Defense and service officials.
Air Force officials said it costs between $3 and $11 million and takes approximately five years to develop an individual fighter pilot to lead combat missions.