Air Force pilot problems

David Pugliese of the Ottawa Citizen helpfully provides a transcript:

Air Force commander Lt.-Gen. Angus Watt outlined the personnel problems his organization is having these days at a meeting of the Senate defence committee. It all makes for interesting reading but the general seems upbeat that the pilot shortage he talks about can be handled. Here’s what he had to say [a webcast is available here, Lt.-Gen. Watt is at 5:30 pm]:

Lt.-Gen. Watt: "Air technicians are not the only occupation for which I need to increase training output. Pilot production is also critical. The pilot occupation is currently under its preferred manning level by approximately 13 per cent and this deficit is growing. Steps are being taken to resolve the pilot production problems, including increasing the throughput of basic training courses and increasing operational absorption capability. Initiatives include changes to the primary and basic flying training contracts, revised training methodologies, better selection tools to reduce attrition and the increased use of simulators.

Once we have these individuals trained, the most critical aspect is retaining them in the air force. We project attrition to be approximately 8 per cent this year, and I have a large group of individuals entering the range of service at which we expect high attrition. To combat this loss, we are ensuring we set conditions that will make us an employer of choice for Canadians for two reasons: To attract people and to keep them. Finding ways of keeping existing members in the organization is the focus of my concern right now. In several occupations there exists a shortfall in personnel with 12 to 16 years of service.

The challenge I face is that I cannot replace these people directly from civilian life. I cannot hire people at this level of experience directly into the forces, and it is an experience level that is essential to safe and effective operations. To this end, the retention of those individuals is critical and I am developing a personnel strategy to identify and implement measures to address retention [emphasis added].

Senator Day: You are 13 per cent below your requirement with respect to pilot training. I think that is interesting and concerning. Is it because you have more aircraft? Is it because your retention rate is not as good as it should be? Is there a problem with the civilian training program that you have for pilots?

Lt.-Gen. Watt: We are 13 per cent below the manning level for pilots, which is about 1500 pilots, which means we are about 250 pilots short. We have been that way for almost a decade. It has been a long term persistent problem in the air force, and part of that went back to the 1990s when we experienced a rapid decrease in the number of people in the air force. The airlines were hiring at the time, and we lost more pilots than we could produce [emphasis added].
Senator Day: You were also paying pilots to get out of the Armed Forces?

Lt.-Gen. Watt: I know we were.

Senator Day: I remember it well.


Lt.-Gen. Watt: That was not my decision.

Senator Day: We are trying to recover from that now.

Lt.-Gen. Watt: Yes. Over the last few years, we have suffered the introductory pains of bringing on line the NATO flying training in Canada. That system is now mature. It is starting to deliver the product. I am pushing it, though, to increase its capacity. Right now, I am losing about 100 to 105 pilots a year through normal attrition. The NATO flying training program has been producing about 80 to 85, at its best, over the last few years. I have been surviving by re enrolling these people back into the air force after they retired. I am pushing that number of pilots produced per year up to 105, which is the design capacity of the system, within a year or two, and eventually we will try to go higher, to 120 or maybe even 140. I am pushing at every level to increase that system so that I can have a healthy demographic and start to recover that shortfall in pilots. [emphasis added]"

Later in the hearing Lt.-Gen. Watt notes that the Air Force has got the retention issue under control. Pay and benefits are vastly better than before, he adds

Lt-Gen. Watt: “There are a few problems with housing costs in a few areas of the country, but other than that we are doing all right. We are competing well on the economic side and also on what I call quality of profession. We offer a career of excitement, challenge and personal satisfaction like you will never find elsewhere. In addition, the infusion of new capabilities into the air force is particularly well received by my people. There is nothing pilots like to see more than a new aircraft sitting on the ramp. Although it is new capability, it is also a key retention tool for me [emphasis added].

I do not stop there. A week ago, we had an Armed Forces council meeting and spent two hours talking about nothing but retention. To be clear, retention is not spelled B O N U S, as many people think. Retention is a series of programs and initiatives to ameliorate some of the pressures that military life imposes on individuals and their families. We believe that if we can ameliorate some of those pressures, people will be more inclined to stay because the pay and benefits are good, the job is exciting, there is a sense of mission and there is new capability.”..