U.S. Air Force Graduates First Class of XPW Pilots

I've pretty much always felt that this is a shift by AETC to shift training responsibilities to operational commands to make their numbers look good. Think of it as when you first learned to ride a bike or drive a car. Sure you could do, it but you needed lots of practice before you became truly proficient. In the traditional UPT young pilots had lots of extra air time to get their 'air sense' before being shipped off to aircraft difference training or operational units. The time needed to get that 'air sense' has now been taken away from AETC but the need for the training flying time is still there. Everything at an operational unit is driven by flying time, their entire budgets are based on the number of flying hours they are allocated to conduct operations. Training is factored into flying hour allocations but not necessarily the increased training it is now going to take to get these new pilots combat capable. So, AETC is cranking pilots out faster, but its going to take the operational units more time and money for those pilots to be of much use.

If it work I think it will be great. BUT IMHO it will only work for heavy pilots...don't think it will work for fighters or bombers...different skill set that needs to be weeded out through traditional means. I think if we train our heavy pilots through this and sim time like the airlines do it will cut down on the operational training when they get to first duty.