{"id":16527,"date":"2018-09-17T21:16:12","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T21:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/09\/17\/air-force-on-warrant-officers-thanks-but-no-thanks\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:24:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:24:02","slug":"air-force-on-warrant-officers-thanks-but-no-thanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2018\/09\/17\/air-force-on-warrant-officers-thanks-but-no-thanks\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force on warrant officers: Thanks, but no thanks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Air Force\u2019s flirtation with reviving warrant officers<\/a> for the first time in six decades came to an end Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lt. Gen. Brian Kelly, the Air Force\u2019s new personnel chief, said during a question-and-answer session Monday that reviving warrant officers wouldn\u2019t help solve the service\u2019s pilot retention and shortfall crisis<\/a>, and plans to tell Congress that it won\u2019t go that way<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCongress asked us [in last year\u2019s National Defense Authorization Act], do warrant officers make sense to come in and help the Air Force with their pilot retention problem [and] pilot production problem?\u201d Kelly said at the Air Force Association\u2019s Air, Space, Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. \u201cWe\u2019re going to go back and say, \u2018No, they do not.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelly cited a Rand Corporation report commissioned by the Air Force earlier this year that found warrant officers would not help pilot retention, and could in fact hurt. One of the problems, Kelly said, is that commissioned officer pilots are already paid much less than they can earn at commercial airlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warrant officers, whose pay maxes out at about what a captain makes, would have an even greater pay gap, Kelly said. And this would exacerbate the retention problem, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t