What is the best route to become a military pilot? Warrant or 2LT? Which branch?

Go Army! Drop a Warrant Officer Flight Training (WOFT) packet at your local recruiter and if your daughter gets selected, flight school is her path. If she doesn't get selected she isn't stuck in an MOS and military commitment wishing she could fly. Then continue to improve her WOFT packet and submit it again. In the Army, Warrant Officer Aviators fly for their career, whereas Commissioned Aviators start to go into leadership positions (not much flying) around the rank of Captain. I researched the Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marines, Merchant Marines, before I decided to drop a WOFT packet with the Army. Haven't regretted it yet.

You'll probably get the responses you need. I am a warrant in flight school right now. If you have any questions I can help with send me a message.

Is she smart? At the top of her class? There is a lot of competition to be a pilot, at least in the Army. What would her career goals be? Does she want her career focused on flying or does she want to eventually be a commander? Does she want to go Active duty or Guard?

warrant, they fly all the time.

SSG Stokes-The one consistent thing about military aviation pipelines is that they have high attrition rates. The Naval Aviation (to include Marine Aviation) syllabus is probably among the most difficult, as Naval or Marine Corps fixed-wing Aviators have to do everything an Air Force pilot has to do...plus do it from a carrier at sea. I've no experience with the Army Aviation program, but I've enough friends who went through it to surmise that the aviation specific challenges are no less arduous.

Personally, I feel the most "dicey" way of going about it is to pursue a full commission through ROTC or the Academy before wining a contract. You've four years of intensive study, physical training and leadership development before "jumping off", and then, as much as another two years before you get to a squadron...that's a long road with lots of chances to end up losing your career along the way.

OCS is probably the best way heading into the Navy...if flying is what you want more than anything else. She'll get to the VTs faster, with more energy available, so to speak. However, there are downsides in terms of comparing that route in terms of the overall career.

Ultimately, flight school is tough...real tough. If someone is uncomfortable in the water, struggles with mathematics or sciences, and doesn't have excellent memorization skills...it's very long odds making it through all three phases of SNA or SNFO. I had plenty of Air Force students doing the water survival portion alongside me...so I don't know that there's any factor of the first two phases that would differ much between services. Most of the guys I know who made it past Intermediate didn't choke out on the boat...we lost most folks at API or Primary.

One thing I'd have done different? Getting a private pilot's license on the civil side would've informed me a great deal more about the challenges of flying, navigating and communicating...and helped me know which weaknesses to focus on most. I entered the program expecting API's physical demands, particularly water survival (I wasn't a strong swimmer) to be my nemesis...I handled those pretty well. Doing fuel consumption calcs while talking to two controllers and short-tempered instructor pilot proved more devastating for me personally.

All depends on what she feels she would want to fly. I want to say every branch has rotary although the Air Force doesn't have Warrant Officers so she'd have to go for a full commission for us. Army does offer Warrant Officer Aviation positions to non-prior service, not sure about the other branches. For fixed wing although the Army does have fixed wing she'd be better off in one of the others. Marines, Navy and Air Force all have fighters so at that point it just becomes which ever branch she would prefer. If she'd rather fly larger jets the Air Force has far more than the rest in that regard. The Air Force also has a large need for Drone Pilots at the moment if that's something she'd be interested in. I think I remember reading something at one point that said that drone pilots do their few years on drones and then usually move to manned aircraft so it wouldn't be a horrible route to take.

Again it depends on what she wants to fly but there are plenty of different opportunities out there from every branch.

SSG (Join to see)
There are rumors (just that, nothing more, so please don't read too much into what I'm about to say) that the Air Force my POSSIBLY bring back Warrant Officers to fly RPA's (Remotely Piloted Aircraft) or drones. The AF has decided to start training enlisted RPA pilots, and there is some talk about making those pilots Warrant Officers.

However, it sounds like your girl wants to "really" fly, as in a real cockpit physically flying the plane and not remotely piloting a plane?

How close is she to graduation? She will need a degree to become a 2LT in order to fly in the USAF.

No warrants in the USAF anymore...2Lt...

Warrant Officer is the best rank in the military. Earning the rank means you are a recognized specialist in a field. The WO Corp is the most well trained specialized Officers in all the services. Army, Navy, Marines, (sorry, Air Force! You don't have any. How unfortunate). I have been a Warrant since 1983 and am still flying. I would not have gone any other way. Commissioned officers will fly in line units, with the majority of their time up to the rank of O3. After that, mostly staff jobs with a lot less flying.

Flying is a WO's job for his career plus career tracks like Aviation Safety Officer, Instructor Pilot, Maintenance Test Pilot, and others.