Pilot shortage requires creative thinking

For those who closely follow the news about the Canadian Armed Forces in general and the Royal Canadian Air Force in particular, it will come as no shock to learn that they are currently suffering from a crippling shortage of trained personnel.

At a recent defence and security conference in Ottawa, Minister of National Defence Bill Blair admitted that the inability of recruiting to keep pace with retirements from the CAF have left Canada’s military institution in a “death spiral.” Blair offered no plan to correct the course of action, he simply said that the leadership “needs to do better.”

In 2023, Vice Admiral Angus Topshee released a short video message which contained an unprecedented honest admission that the present day Royal Canadian Navy is anything but, “Ready aye Ready.”

Topshee admitted that for the foreseeable future the RCN would be unable to meet its operational requirements. This shortfall of trained sailors recently led to the cancellation of an annual, two-ship deployment to the seas off the west coast of Africa. Topshee was not whistling past the graveyard: The RCN really is broken.

While Lt.-gen. Eric Kenny has been less open with the Canadian public about the state of the RCAF, the lack of experienced pilots and ground crew is not something easily disguised to those toiling in the much-thinned ranks.

Last year, the RCAF was unable to participate in several international joint training exercises because Canada simply does not have the resources. This is particularly true among the RCAF’S Fighter Wing.

TRAINING SUSPENDED

One might have thought that the release of Tom Cruise’s Top Gun Hollywood blockbuster sequel would have sent hordes of young men and women racing to the nearest recruiting centre. However, even if the video game generation were motivated to test their skills for real, the problem now is that the depleted RCAF Fighter Wing is hard pressed to even absorb them.

On March 8, the RCAF announced that they were suspending the Phase III and IV of the fighter pilot training program and retiring the aging CT-155 Hawk trainer fleet of aircraft. For the last 24 years, the CT-155 Hawk has served with the RCAF as their main advanced trainer aircraft, serving as the last step before student pilots moved on to the even more ancient CF-18 Hornets. Previously, a typical training course for a fighter pilot candidates would go through four training phases, of which Phase III and IV were on the CT-155.

Now, a RCAF wannabe fighter pilot will need to complete their first two basic phases and then wait until Canada can find space on an advanced training course with an allied nation. One of the official justifications for farming out this training and shutting down the CT-155 fleet was that it is due to Canada soon transitioning to the yet-to-be-delivered 88 new CF-35’S. (The CF-18 Hornets would eventually be retired).

This justification, however, is just bureaucratic lipstick on a pig. No one in RCAF leadership is willing to admit that they have dropped so far below a sustainable personnel level that they can no longer train the next generation fighter pilots.

This situation cannot be reversed by simply trying harder to do what is no longer working.

LOCATION CARROT

At present, if you want to fly fighters, you are either going to live in Cold Lake, Alta., or Bagotville, Que. These bases may make good tactical sense in terms of North American air defence, but their remoteness poses a major challenge to the modern family construct wherein both spouses have a career.

The solution would be to move the fighter squadrons to Calgary and Mirabel, Montreal, respectively and negotiate deals with Canada’s major airlines to allow former RCAF fighter pilots to serve as true reservists.

If those trained CF-18 fighter pilots could bring their skillset back to the RCAF, say for two months of the year, without having to move back to Cold Lake or Bagotville, I think you could erase the personnel shortage almost overnight.

I’m sure if the RCAF brain-trust also threw in the carrot of investing in these reserve pilots to transition to the fifth generation CF-35’S you would seal the deal.

Let’s start being creative, folks. Tom Cruise cannot live forever and the RCAF just turned 100 this year.