<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Flickr/US Air Force</span></p><p class="caption">An aircraft maintainer on the flight line in front of a snow-covered C-5M Super Galaxy at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, January 6, 2015.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>The Air Force's pilot shortage has caused dismay among legislators, Air Force leaders, and pilots themselves.</strong></li><li><strong>But an ongoing shortage of maintainers has also strained the force and its resources.</strong></li><li><strong>The Air Force has worked diligently to reduce the shortage, but it won't be solve simply by recruiting more of them.</strong></li></ul><p><br />The Air Force's protracted pilot shortage has garnered <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-has-a-pilot-shortage-due-to-lack-of-training-resources-2017-10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">considerable attention</a>.</p><p>Air Force officials said this spring that the force was 1,555 pilots short - about 1,000 of them fighter pilots. But the shortage of pilots continued to grow during the 2017 fiscal year, which ended in September.</p><p>At that point, it had <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/air-force-pilot-shortage-crisis-getting-worse-2017-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expanded to 2,000 total force pilots</a> - active duty, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve. That includes nearly 1,300 fighter pilots, and the greatest negative trends over the past two fiscal years have been among bomber and mobility pilots, Air Force spokeswoman Erika Yepsen told Business Insider.</p><p>But fliers aren't the only ones absent in significant numbers</p><p>According to Air Force Chief of Staff <a href="http://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/108013/general-david-l-goldfein/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gen. David Goldfein</a>, the lack of maintainers to keep planes flying has also become a hindrance on the service's operations.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Michael Battles</span></p><p class="caption">A 340th Aircraft Maintenance Unit maintainer adjusts the window of a KC-135 Stratotanker boom pod before a flight in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, July 3, 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"When I started flying airplanes as a young F-16 pilot, I would meet my crew chief ... and a secondary crew chief at the plane," said Goldfein, who received his commission from the US Air Force Academy in 1983.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">He explained the issue to reporters during a briefing in early November. </span></p><p> </p><h2>'The tension on the force right now is significant'</h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The pilot and maintainer shortages are part of what Air Force officials have called a "national air-crew crisis" that has been stoked by nearly 30 years of ongoing operations, hiring by commercial airlines, as well as quality of life and cultural issues within the force that drive airmen away. In recent years, pressure from budget sequestration has also had a impact on Air Force personnel training and retention.</span></p><p>The maintainer shortage has been a problem for some time. In 2013, the total shortage was 2,538. But the force's drawdown in 2014 - during which the Air Force shed more than 19,800 airmen - added to the deficit. Between 2013 and 2015 the shortage of maintainers grew by 1,217, <a href="https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/03/05/the-drawdown-blew-a-hole-in-the-air-forces-maintenance-ranks-how-it-s-digging-its-way-out/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Air Force Times.</p><p>By the end of fiscal year 2015, the service was short some 4,000 maintainers, Yepsen told Business Insider.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Katherine Spessa</span></p><p class="caption">An aircraft maintenance squadron crew chief during a post-flight inspection on an F-16 at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, November 15, 2016. Aircraft maintainers do six hours or more of post-flight inspections after each sortie.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The shortage of maintainers created hardship for the ones who have remained.</p><p>The commander of the 52nd Maintenance Group at Spangdahlem Air Force Base in Germany <a href="http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2016/November%202016/Maintainer-Misery.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Air Force Magazine</a> in late 2016 that workdays had stretched to 13 or 14 hours, with possible weekend duty meaning air crews could work up to 12 days straight. In the wake of the 2014 drawdown, maintainers at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina saw their workdays extend to 12 hours or more, with weekend duties at least twice a month.</p><p><span>"There comes a point where people stop and say it isn't worth it anymore," Staff Sgt. Stephen Lamb, an avionics craftsman from the 20th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Shaw, <a href="https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/03/05/the-drawdown-blew-a-hole-in-the-air-forces-maintenance-ranks-how-it-s-digging-its-way-out/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Air Force Times in March. "I've seen, in the past few years, a lot of good friends walk out the door."</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As with pilots, the Air Force has made a concerted effort to improve its maintainer situation. In 2016, the force <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/holloman/2016/04/20/seeking-maintainers-air-force-adds-dozens-jobs-enlistment-bonus-list/83205066/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quadrupled</a> the number of jobs eligible for initial enlistment bonuses - among them 10 aircraft maintenance and avionics career fields. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Air Force has also offered senior crew chiefs and avionics airmen perks, such as reenlistment bonuses and high-year tenure extensions. At the end of 2016, 43 Air Force specialty codes, many of them flight-line maintainers, were being offered bonuses <a href="http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2016/November%202016/Maintainer-Misery.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">averaging $50,000</a> to remain in uniform for four to six more years.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>US Air Force/Staff Sgt. Christopher Ruano</span></p><p class="caption">A crew chief with the 480th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron does preflight checks while communicating with an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot at Souda Bay, Greece, January 27, 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lt. Gen. Gina Grosso, the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for manpower and personnel services, said earlier this year that the service closed 2016 with a shortage of 3,400 maintainers, warning that the ongoing shortage held back personnel development. </span></p><p>"Because of this shortage, we cannot generate the sorties needed to fully train our aircrews," Grosso <a href="http://docs.house.gov/meetings/AS/AS02/20170329/105795/HHRG-115-AS02-Wstate-GrossoG-20170329.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the House Armed Services' personnel subcommittee at the end of March.</p><p>According to Yepsen, the Air Force spokeswoman, that shortage has continued to decline, falling to 400 personnel at the end of fiscal year 2017. Several Air Force officials <a href="http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2016/November%202016/Maintainer-Misery.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have said</a> they hope to <a href="https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2017/03/05/the-drawdown-blew-a-hole-in-the-air-forces-maintenance-ranks-how-it-s-digging-its-way-out/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">eliminate</a> the maintainer shortage entirely by 2019.</p><p>But the health of the Air Force maintainer force won't be solved by simply restoring its ranks. The complex aircraft the Air Force operates - not to mention the high operational tempo it looks set to continue for some time - require maintainers with extensive training. Air Force units can only absorb and train so many recruits at one time.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>US Air Force/Senior Airman John D. Pharr III</span></p><p class="caption">Tech. Sgt. Christopher Dominguez conducts a HH-60G Pavehawk helicopter tail-rotor inspection, at Moffett Federal Air Field, California, November 26, 2013.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><span>"We have to have time to develop the force to ensure that we have experienced maintainers to support our complex weapons systems," then-Col. Patrick Kumashiro, chief of the Air Force staff's maintenance division, <a href="http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2016/November%202016/Maintainer-Misery.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Air Force Magazine in late 2016. "We cannot solve it in one year."</span></p><p><span>Heftier bonuses for senior air-crew members are <a href="http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2016/November%202016/Maintainer-Misery.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">also a means</a> to keep experienced maintainers on hand for upkeep of legacy aircraft and to train new maintainers, with the addition of those new maintainers allowing experienced crew members to shift their focus to new platforms, like the F-35 fighter and the KC-46 tanker.</span></p><p><span>"While our manning numbers have improved, it will take 5-7 years to get them seasoned and experienced," Yepsen told Business Insider. "We are continuously evaluating opportunities to improve our readiness as quickly and effectively as possible."</span></p><p><span><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We're making the mission happen, but we're having to do it very often on the backs of our airmen," Goldfein said during the November 9 briefing. "The tension on the force right now is significant, and so we're looking for all these different ways to not only retain those that we've invested in, but increase production so we can provide some reduction in the tension on the force."</span></span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/here-how-us-military-refills-b-52-warplanes-midair-military-defense-air-force-transportation-2017-10">Here's how the US military refuels B-52 warplanes in midair</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

An overlooked part of the Air Force's personnel problem is going to take years to fix

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Business Insider/Biz Carson</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Google made a big move this week to push its self-driving car plans back into the spotlight.</p><p>Google announced it was spinning out its self-driving car unit into an independent company called <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-to-spin-out-self-driving-car-project-in-new-company-waymo-2016-12" target="_blank">Waymo</a> on Tuesday.</p><p>The tech giant has been working on autonomous technology longer than anyone in the game. It first <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-driverless-car-history-photos-2016-10/#google-launched-its-self-driving-car-project-in-2009-under-the-leadership-of-sebastian-thrun-a-stanford-university-professor-who-is-lauded-as-the-founder-of-the-autonomous-car-while-at-google-thrun-led-several-projects-at-googles-x-research-lab-including-google-glass-and-street-view-thrun-has-since-left-google-and-is-now-the-founder-of-education-startup-udacity-1" target="_blank">announced the project in 2009</a> under Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford professor lauded as the founder of the self-driving car.</p><p>The concept of building a robot car was so bizarre at the time it prompted Fiat Chrysler to launch a peculiar <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFSKH7Gmni8" target="_blank">attack ad</a> in 2011:</p><p>"Hands-free driving, cars that park themselves, an unmanned car driven by a search-engine company? We've seen that movie. It ends with robots harvesting our bodies for energy."</p><p>Well, times have changed. Now Fiat Chrysler supplies Pacifica minivans for Waymo. Major automakers like General Motors and Ford are also investing in self-driving cars.</p><p>But even though Google has been in the self-driving car space longer than anyone else out there - before it was even considered a legitimate space like it is today - it's getting lapped by the competition.</p><p>Google may know what it's doing when it comes to refining self-driving car technology, but it has been totally lost when it comes to bringing a product to market.</p><h2>Lapped by the competition</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Justin Sullivan/Getty</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Up until Tuesday, Google has set itself apart from competitors by pursuing a fully self-driving car built without a steering wheel or pedals. That vision was embodied by its "Koala" prototype cars that have operated without driver controls since 2014 and don't come with a driver's seat.</p><p>But at its Waymo press event, CEO John Krafcik said the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/google-says-its-not-a-car-company-2016-12" target="_blank">steering wheel will stay</a> and the cars will be piloted by humans.</p><p>Krafcik said the steering wheel will stay due to regulatory issues, but that Google will keep pursuing Level 5 autonomy, which is when a car can drive itself without any human input or surveillance. </p><p>But <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/driverless-car-regulations-michigan-2016-12" target="_blank">Michigan recently passed legislation</a> that, among other things, allows for the testing of self-driving cars without a steering wheel, brake pedal, or human in the front seat. Google was one of several companies that helped shape the legislation.</p><p>Now, Michigan is just one state, and it in no ways guarantees that kind of legislation will make its way through on the federal level. But at the very least it gave Google an opportunity to showcase its vision on public roads, so why back out now?</p><p>The most likely explanation is that Google has changed its strategy to get its product to market faster. Goodbye Koala pod cars operating without a steering wheel, hello regular-looking cars with self-driving tech.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Business Insider/Corey Protin</span></p><p class="caption">An Uber self-driving car in Pittsburgh.</p></div><p></p></div></div>"We are a self-driving technology company. We've made it pretty clear we are not a car company," Krafcik said at the Waymo event.</p><p>Ultimately, it seems the pressure to get something to the market has won out.</p><p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-12/google-car-project-loses-leaders-and-advantage-as-rivals-gain" target="_blank">Bloomberg's Alistair Barr</a> reported in September that it was Alphabet CEO Larry Page that continued to push for full autonomy, even though staff members pointed out it was holding back progress.</p><p>Google employees explored partial autonomy, along the lines of Tesla Autopilot, in 2012. But when the company saw a driver's attention began to drift, Google decided to pursue full autonomy at all costs, Bloomberg reported. That decision led many staff members to leave Google and pursue self-driving car projects that held more promise of making it to market.</p><p>Now, Krafcik has made it crystal clear that Waymo is still committed to Level 5 autonomy, but integrating self-driving tech into a car with standard driver controls certainly shows an acquiesce to keep things more consumer friendly.</p><p>After all, it's unlikely consumers wants their first experience with a self-driving car to be one without any semblance of control. </p><p><a href="https://www.theinformation.com/google-scaled-back-self-driving-car-ambitions">The Information's Amir Efrati</a> reported Monday that Waymo is ultimately planning to leverage its existing partnership with Fiat Chrysler to release a line of robot taxis in 2017. That decision highlights the pressure Google feels from Uber, which launched a self-driving car pilot in Pittsburgh in September (though its recent <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/california-dmv-sends-letter-threatening-legal-action-to-uber-2016-12" target="_blank">San Francisco pilot launch</a> could put the company in legal trouble.)</p><p>Krafcik said at the Waymo event that Google was interested in using its self-driving technology for ride-sharing, but didn't comment on The Information report.</p><p>But even acknowledging the prospect of a ride-sharing service shows Google is readying to bring something to market.</p><p>Uber, naturally, isn't the only competitor in Google's path.</p><p>Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced in October that its cars are currently being built with fully driverless hardware. He also plans to launch a ride-sharing service, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-driverless-ridesharing-plans-could-take-on-uber-2016-10" target="_blank">Tesla Network</a>, for Tesla's self-driving cars.</p><p>General Motors is also interested in integrating its self-driving car vision with its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/former-tesla-vp-georg-bauer-autonomy-will-kill-car-ownership-2016-11" target="_blank">car-sharing service, Maven</a>. It has also invested $500 million in Lyft, Uber's competitor.</p><p>Whether Google will actually launch its self-driving tech in a ride-sharing service consumers can experience in 2017 has yet to be seen.</p><p>But Google will need to continue to adapt to get its self-driving tech to market before rivals that entered the self-driving car space after it take up the market. It's decision to keep the steering wheel shows one step in that direction, what comes next could decide whether Google stays relevant in this space.</p><p><em>The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.</em></p><p> </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-how-self-driving-car-sees-road-2016-11">Tesla reveals how your self-driving car sees the road</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="U0Ym5yNzE6JVehzfvAL7o4lu7-8AEnZv" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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