ArabianKnight

I have seen some UAV salaries ranging from 10k a month to 18k and higher for deployed positions. I am in the security field and have seen the salaries plummet since the beginning of the GWOT war. I am wondering if this field is more resistant to these kind of salary fluctuations or do you think it will hold steady for the time being?

I would also like to know what some of the current UAV salaries are especially when deployed OCONUS with some of the usual companies out there such as VT Group, Insitu, ISR Group, and others.

rickair7777

The pay range you mentioned seems about right.

But long term I would expect to see some reduction off of those peak salaries.

The reasons they are high, and why that might change...

- They need rated pilots. There is no UAV-specific training pipeline yet, so they hire regular military or civilian pilots. Most of those folks did not dream of flying big model airplanes, so you have to pay them more than you would to fly say an airliner. Senior military pilots make almost that much anyway.

This will likely change in the long-term when military and civilian UAV training pipelines are developed. Most (or all) UAV pilot training can and will be done on non-motion simulators (ie PCATD)...this will dramatically reduce training costs. This will lower the entry barrier and make it feasible for operators to hire folks with zero experience and train them. they won't have to pay a premium to get a rated pilot out of his cockpit.

- Deployment to the desert comes at a premium. Truck drivers can make $10K+ month over there. Long-term, the hardship deployments will dwindle when/if OEF winds down and as technology makes it easier to control UAV's from remote sites in CONUS.

- Most UAV operations are conducted by the federal government...they pay janitors $80K, with full retirement and medical bennies. If non-federal agencies and private operators get into the UAV operations business the fat federal gravy train may get derailed, although certain jobs will always b government employees.

- More UAV's are acquiring weapons. The DoD philosophy is that weapons release authority will rest with uniformed military personnel (as it should). This will force some UAV jobs back into the military ranks...which will probably pay OK, but that doesn't help you if you are looking for a civilian career.

The good news....

- Unlike the airlines, nobody flies UAV's to "build time", or because "it's cool", or for travel benefits, or to "build seniority". It's a job and everybody looks at it that way, so you will probably not see a "regional airline syndrome" with wages depressed to ludicrously low levels due to market forces. I would imagine that it won't get much lower than $70-80K.

- Also I suspect UAV operators will be looking for mature college grads to trust their equipment to. UAV missions involve more than flying from point A to B, there are usually some mission objectives which require judgement and analytic skills...you won't see some of the drooling morons we have in the regional airlines.

- UAV's sometimes interact with ATC, and in the future they are likely to fly unrestricted in normal airspace. This will require skills and judgement equivalent to a COMM/IR pilot, so you will probably not see any pimple-faced teenage gamers flying anything which weighs more than a few hundred pounds. Private pilots have been able to fly UAV's (and get paid) but I assume the FAA will close that loophole eventually.

whatthe6789

Are there any UAV companies hiring pilots without strong internal recommendations now?

rickair7777

It's a little tougher now than it was in the boom days of 2005-2007. If you have previous UAV experience you could probably find something.

Also General Atomics has hired regional pilots, although not necessarily for a pilot job. They have various other jobs for which they want turbine pilot experience, and you may get qualified on the predator to enhance your knowledge.

Check their web site, they have done at least one career fair recently. If you have military, engineering, or a technical degree that would be a plus...big bonus points if you are willing to move to Palmdale. The upside of palmdale is you can probably eventually wrangle your way to the San Diego facility if you don't like the desert (and cost-of-living is no object)

ArabianKnight

I know of the Army and Air Force UAS positions but I think that all branches have some sort of UAS position.

I know the Army has the Hunter UAS that is attack capable but the Air Force are the ones who drop the bombs and missiles. Some time ago the Army used a Hunter to attack a target in Iraq and I think the Air Force got upset we were stepping on there toes.

Do you think that UAS attack will stay with the Air Force or will it bleed off to the Army?

Also, for the Predator system in the Air Force, do the officers (pilots(why officers?)), or do the enlisted (sensor operators) press the RED button to fire?

ArabianKnight

Can anyone answer this?

rickair7777

I don't know who physically presses the button, but it doesn't matter. With a military crew, the senior member is the commander period. If someone else presses the button, the commander approved it, either explictly or implicitly.

As to why all AF pilots are officers...it's a cultural thing. The army is in the business of land warfare, whatever that entails. They have aircraft, pilots, ships, and combat divers, all to support their land mission.

The AF however is mostly in the business of fighting with (manned) airplanes. Their culture revolves around that, so they want to reserve all of the pilot slots for their leadership cadre. They have an underlying fear that all the technology changes will result in such a reduction in manned aircraft that what the AF calls "non-rated" officers will take over the service. So don't expect non-commissioned pilots in the AF. I doubt they will even go there with UAV's.

The navy is somewhere in the middle...the naval aviation community is not much different from the AF, except that they do not run the entire Navy. They do run a big part of it...naval aviation includes all of the big-deck carriers which provide a large chunk of the navy's power-projection capability (any single one of the 12 missile submarines packs more punch than every carrier ever built, but for practical purposes they can't be used to project power...unless it is in retaliation).