Building a Healthy MQ-1/9 RPA Pilot Community: Designing a Career Field Planning Tool

The personnel who operate remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) are crucial in the Air Force, but many in the RPA career field are dissatisfied, and it is difficult to train and retain enough pilots to meet the demand. To assist in building a healthy, sustainable RPA career field, RAND has developed a long-term RPA career field planning model. This report explains the model’s main features, content, and data inputs and describes key technical aspects.