The Air Force is expanding its pilot training pipeline to overcome an insatiable demand for experienced pilots for both cockpit and staff positions. This surging demand, combined with newly robust competition for military pilots from commercial airline recruiters, has led to a shortage of Air Force fighter pilots. But USAF is forced to grow its pilot production on the back of an aircraft that is decades old and has little room to modernize-and while the service is prioritizing a new generation of remotely piloted aircraft operators. The main training aircraft, the T-38 Talon, has trained Air Force pilots for more than 50 years. Air Education and Training Command says it is too old and falls short on two-thirds of the advanced training requirements needed for fighter pilots getting ready to fly the service's newest fighters: the F-22 and F-35. USAF is placing a large bet on its next generation trainer, dubbed the T-X, and current pilots in training are spending more time in simulators to make up the training capability gap.
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