Droner - USAF lar vernepliktige fly Global Hawk - Curt Lewis

Air Force plans 100 enlisted drone pilots by 2020

The Air Force will send its first 10 enlisted airmen to drone pilot training this October - and by 2020, there could be as many as 100 of them.

In a Wednesday release, the Air Force said the first class of enlisted airmen is expected to graduate from RPA pilot training in 2017, and become the Air Force's first enlisted pilots since World War II. The enlisted RPA pilots will only fly unarmed RQ-4 Global Hawks, which conduct high-altitude reconnaissance missions at up to 60,000 feet.

The Air Force will expand its cadre of enlisted RPA pilots from there - but said it will do so cautiously, and correct course along the way if necessary. The service anticipates 12 enlisted airmen will graduate from RPA pilot training in fiscal 2017, followed by 30 in fiscal 2018, 30 in fiscal 2019, and 28 in fiscal 2020.

"We'll take this important step in a deliberate manner so that we can learn what works and what we'll need to adjust as we integrate our highly capable enlisted force into flying this weapons system," said Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James in the release. "The intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission continues to grow in importance and our enlisted force will be central to our success."

By 2020, the Air Force hopes to have a little more than half of its 198 RQ-4 pilots be enlisted airmen. And by that point, roughly 70 percent of the 121 airmen flying Global Hawk missions on a day-to-day basis - not performing other duties such as staff positions at the wing - will be enlisted airmen, the Air Force said.