Warrant Officer Program, Why Not?
Abstract
This paper explores the feasibility of the United States Air Force (USAF) bringing back the Warrant Officer Program. The USAF is currently faced with high turnover and retention challenges in Career Special Re-enlistment Bonus (CSRB) Air Force Specialty Codes (AFSC) career fields. Furthermore, the USAF is exploring using enlisted members to supplement the Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) force structure. Rather, the USAF should convert all 1136 RPA pilots to warrant officers (WO) and utilize the overage of WOs, assuming a 1 officer to 1.6 warrant officer conversion rate to supplement CSRB AFSCs by bringing back the Warrant Officer Program. This paper will argue that bringing back the WO corps to the USAF can ease their retention, turnover and RPA challenges while providing vertical job opportunities for some enlisted personnel who currently either separate from the USAF or join another sister service that offer WO opportunities. Bringing back the WO in the USAF will also allow pilots to remain in their desired airframe without having to serve an RPA tour, something that historically has led to pilots separating from the USAF. The USAF would be well served by converting all current RPA and vacant junior officer positions to WOs, expanding the current Officer Training School class size to allow enlisted members to earn their warrant commission and distribute all of the remaining WO positions across the CSRB career fields to ease turnover and retention issues.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1055002
Entities
People
- Eric F Schmidt
Organizations
- Air War College