USAF paying $225K retention bonuses to offset fighter pilot shortage

[CougarKing]

Air Force, facing fighter pilot shortage, offers retention bonuses of up to $225,000

Excerpts:

The Air Force estimates that without a serious recruiting effort, it will be short 700 fighter pilots eight years from now -- so it is offering retention bonuses of up to $225,000 to stay in the service for an additional nine years.......


(...)
....Now we do have a fighter pilot shortage. We're currently about 200 fighter pilots short,” said Maj.Gen James Jones, US Air Force, Operations Plans and Requirements....

(...)

The reasons for the shortage? Fighter pilot fatigue after 12 years of war. Sequestration, which has one-third of the air force fighter squadrons grounded. Plus commercial airlines offer higher salaries on average .

Boeing estimates there will be a global need for 460,000 new commercial pilots over the next two decades, which will add to the need to woo the U.S. military's ace pilots.

The FAA has also raised the qualification requirements for commercial co-pilots from 250 flying hours to 1500, making U.S. military-trained pilots with years of experience even more attractive...

(...)

Read more: Fox News link

 

[Edward Campbell]

Please see Old EU tech's comment, here.

Two points:

    1. $225,000 is chump change when one considers the costs of recruiting, selecting, educating and training a pilot - or a senior NCO, for that matter; and

    2. The data I have seen - which is not, to be sure, definitive - suggests that retention bonuses work.