Air Force considers larger retention bonuses for drone pilots

The demand for drones to fly surveillance missions keeps going up, but the number of remotely piloted aircraft pilots is going down, so the Air Force is considering increasing retention bonuses for RPA pilots, said Col. Ray Alves of Air Combat Command.

"We're looking at incentives of how we maintain people in the career field and how we incentivize growth in the career field … to give them bonuses similar to what I received as a young major, my pilot retention bonus," said Alves, an F-16 pilot who later became an MQ-1 Predator squadron commander.

Under the current Aviator Retention Pay program, RPA pilots who transferred from flying manned to unmanned aircraft can earn a retention bonus between $15,000 and $25,000, depending on how long they extend their contracts.

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