# DRDC Paper:  How many Hornet pilots do you need to get job done?



## The Bread Guy (20 Jan 2011)

"The Effects of Aircrew Illness and Aircraft Availability on Manning Rates for Selected CF188 Force Employments,"  D. Gregory Hunter; DRDC CORA TM 2010-217; Defence R&D Canada – CORA; October
2010 - attached.

From the executive summary:


> In April of 2009, DRDC CORA received a request for operational research support from A3 Fighter
> at 1 Canadian Air Division. The object of the project was to determine the optimum manning levels
> for a tactical fighter squadron, focusing on the number of pilots required to meet a number of
> specified tasks.
> ...


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## Dissident (20 Jan 2011)

I'm no expert, but I find the conclusion weak. It does not give a solid answer. 

Otherwise, has something similar been done for other manning level of trades? MP guardhouses comes to mind...


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## observor 69 (20 Jan 2011)

My first thought is a competent experienced Squadron commander should be able to come up with an  approximately similar result, considering illness and other factors.


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## The Bread Guy (20 Jan 2011)

Baden  Guy said:
			
		

> My first thought is a competent experienced Squadron commander should be able to come up with an  approximately similar result, factoring in illness and other factors.


My guess is, like with the question "how much weight can we put on a helmet without making life harder on the troopie?", this establishes some sort of scientifically-verified numbers to use if incompetent bosses/planners think differently.


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## Oldgateboatdriver (20 Jan 2011)

I'm probably waaayyy out of my lane here, but it seems to me that the conclusion of this research paper can be summarized as follows:

"If you don't have enough pilots to run the mission you want to run, you'll either have to cut back on what you're trying to achieve or accept higher risk of failure (or should it read "pilots dying"?). As to what level of manning your fighter squadron should have to avoid that problem, we at DRDC haven't got a clue 'cause we don't know how the next war will unfold or what the attrition rate will be so we'll just give you a guess."

I am open to being trounced for this comment if anyone thinks I'm totally wrong.


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## MJP (20 Jan 2011)

I totally read the topic subject wrong when I first saw it and click on it to see the punch line.

How many Horny Hornet pilots do you need to get job done?


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## SupersonicMax (20 Jan 2011)

Well, this document doesn't do much does it?  At least for Scenarios 1 and 2.

1- Why the hell would you fly someone 2X2 hrs in a 16 hrs VUL?  Fly the person 5 hrs straight with A-A Refueling at night.  Send him home after 8hrs of duty time and 12 hrs later (crew rest), get him back to work to fly a 5 hrs day VUL.  That would make MUCH more sense. 

2- It doesn't take into account that you need to overlap the VUL times.  You cannot just send someone off station before someone has taken over.  It would be an approximate 30 minutes addition before and after, hence the 5 hrs on point 1.  

3- It doesn't take into consideration a much more important aspect, especially in today's world, the Lead to Wingman ratio.  2 Wingmen cannot hold a VUL by themselve.  You need 1 Element Lead with 1 Wingman ot 2 Element Leads.


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