US Air Force training more drone operators than pilots

As part of an expanding programme of battlefield automation, the American Air Force has said it is now training more drone operators than fighter and bomber pilots.

In a controversial shift in military thinking - one encouraged by the death of Pakistani Taleban leader Baitullah Mehsud in a drone strike on August 5 - the Air Force is looking to hugely expand its fleet of unmanned aircraft by 2047.

Three years ago, the service was able to fly just 12 drones at a time; now it can fly more than 50.

At a trade conference outside Washington last week, military contractors presented a future vision in which pilotless drones serve as fighters, bombers and transports, even automatic mini-drones which attack in swarms.

Five thousand robotic vehicles and drones are deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. By 2015, the Pentagon's US$230 billion ($339 billion) arms procurement programme Future Combat Systems expects 15 per cent of America's armed forces to be robotic.

A recent study, The Unmanned Aircraft System Flight Plan 2020-2047, predicted a boom in drone funding to US$55 billion by 2020 with the greatest changes coming in the 2040s.

"The capability provided by the unmanned aircraft is game-changing," said General Norton Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff. "We can have eyes 24/7 on our adversaries."

Currently airborne drones are directed by trained pilots who then return to their assigned aircraft.

This year, the service started training drone operators with no airborne experience.

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