USAF looks at scaling back flight training to cut costs

US Air Force (USAF) officials have proposed cutting the service's flight training budget in an effort to scale back costs, according to the recently released Department of Defense (DoD) Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 budget request.

Under the proposals, fighter and bomber flight training will bear the brunt of the cuts, with pilots flying 16,144 fewer hours (a reduction of around five per cent) than in 2011, saving the service some USD272 million.

In total (including all aircraft types), the air force's flight training time will fall to about 1.19 million hours – down by 22,045 hours from 2011.

The USAF promises to make up the lost flight training by having aircrews spend more time in "advanced simulator training", according to the budget proposal.

Officials from Air Combat Command (ACC), which oversees training requirements of fighter and bomber pilots, declined to discuss the larger role simulators will play. "[Talk] about simulator use is premature at the moment," a command spokesman told Jane's on 22 February.

In the fighter community, pilots of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor stand to lose most flying time. The budget recommends cutting 7,382 hours in 2012 – about 33 per cent of what the aircraft flew in 2010.