Pentagon Considers Private Contractors, Jets to Drill With Military Pilots

The Pentagon is looking to reach into the private sector to find personnel to play war games with its military pilots, Defense One reports.

The reason — shortages in money, time and pilots in the military.

"That is something that is actively under consideration," Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told Defense One. "We have to see how the dollars and cents work out."

Military pilots need to practice — or dogfight — to prepare for real combat, and historically they've practiced against each other, with confiscated jets used as "enemy" aircraft.

But that's costly, and it removes pilots from their combat squadrons, according to Defense One.

With a cottage industry of private companies that can provide pilots and fleets of jets, the Pentagon has an alternative to prepare its pilots.

"What we see out here is a growing interest and a growing need for outsourcing certain traditional military training tasks that (the Pentagon) used to always handle," Russ Bartlett, CEO of Textron Airborne Solutions told Defense One.

Private companies employ former military pilots to fly their training jets, Defense One reported.

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