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Air Force Drone Operators Report High Levels of Stress
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- Published on: Wright Squawks
- Posted: 3 months ago
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: December 18, 2011 on www.nytimes.com
WASHINGTON — Nearly half the operators of drone aircraft have high levels of job-related stress, mostly linked to long and erratic work hours because of a tremendous increase in the use of the aircraft, the Air Force said in a new study.
In a survey of nearly 1,500 Air Force members, including 840 operators of Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk drones, the Air Force found that 46 percent of Reaper and Predator pilots and 48 percent of Global Hawk sensor operators reported what the Air Force termed “high operational stress.” It did not specifically define high operational stress but said operators were judged to have it if they rated their stress levels as 8 or above on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 representing the most stress.
A smaller but still significant number — including a quarter of Global Hawk sensor operators — had what the Air Force called “clinical distress,” which was defined as anxiety, depression or stress severe enough to affect an operator’s job performance or family life.
The Air Force has long known anecdotally of the job pressures on drone pilots, who use joysticks and computer screens to fly their aircraft, most typically over Afghanistan, from bases in the United States. But the study, conducted by the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, was the first to try to quantify the strains.
The operators in the study were divided into three groups of people who work hand in hand: Pilots who remotely fly the drones, sensor operators who control the cameras that bring the battlefield into view and mission intelligence coordinators who communicate with troops on the ground. There was also a difference among the drones in the study: Predators and Reapers are armed, and Global Hawks are not.
In one surprising finding that challenged some of the survey’s initial suppositions, the authors found limited stress related to a unique aspect of the operators’ jobs: watching hours of close-up video of people killed in drone strikes. After a strike, operators assess the damage, and unlike fighter pilots who fly thousands of feet above their targets, drone operators can see in vivid detail what they have destroyed.
“The going-in assumption was that we were placing these guys under a great amount of stress because of all this video feed,” said Col. Kent McDonald, the chief of neuropsychiatry at the school of aerospace medicine and one of the study’s two authors.
In one-on-one interviews with 85 operators, the authors found that many felt a sense of accomplishment in protecting troops on the ground. Soldiers and Marines who get pinned down in insurgent fire in Afghanistan often call in airstrikes to get themselves out of trouble, and a drone that comes buzzing overhead is a highly welcome sound. Guided by communications with American troops on the ground, drone operators are then able to aim their missiles directly at insurgents. “These guys are up above firing at the enemy,” Colonel McDonald said. “They love that, they feel like they’re protecting our people. They build this virtual relationship with the guys on the ground.”
Wayne Chappelle, the chief of aerospace psychology at the Air Force school and the study’s other author, said he learned in the interviews that ground troops sometimes sought out the operators by e-mail after a successful strike. “They would want to just say, ‘Hey, thanks, man,’ ” Dr. Chappelle said.
Both Dr. Chappelle and Colonel McDonald said that 4 percent or less of operators were at high risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder, the severe anxiety disorder that can include flashbacks, nightmares, anger, hypervigilance or avoidance of people, places or situations. In those cases, the authors suggested, the operators had seen close-up video of what the military calls collateral damage, casualties of women, children or other civilians. “Collateral damage is unnerving or unsettling to these guys,” Colonel McDonald said.
The percentage of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan at risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder was 12 to 17 percent, the authors said.
In contrast to nearly half of drone operators’ reporting “high operational stress,” 36 percent of a control group of 600 Air Force members in logistics or support jobs reported stress. The Air Force did not compare the stress levels of the drone operators with military pilots who fly planes in the air.
The biggest sources of stress for drone operators remained long hours and frequent shift changes because of staff shortages. The Pentagon has about 7,000 aerial drones, up from 50 a decade ago, and in the next decade expects its number of “multirole” drones — ones that spy as well as strike, like the Reaper — to nearly quadruple, to 536. The Air Force is training more remote pilots, 350 this year alone, than fighter and bomber pilots combined. There are about 1,100 drone pilots in the Air Force.
The study did not include drone operators for the Central Intelligence Agency, which uses drones in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Iran.
Published: December 18, 2011 on www.nytimes.com
WASHINGTON — Nearly half the operators of drone aircraft have high levels of job-related stress, mostly linked to long and erratic work hours because of a tremendous increase in the use of the aircraft, the Air Force said in a new study.
In a survey of nearly 1,500 Air Force members, including 840 operators of Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk drones, the Air Force found that 46 percent of Reaper and Predator pilots and 48 percent of Global Hawk sensor operators reported what the Air Force termed “high operational stress.” It did not specifically define high operational stress but said operators were judged to have it if they rated their stress levels as 8 or above on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 representing the most stress.
A smaller but still significant number — including a quarter of Global Hawk sensor operators — had what the Air Force called “clinical distress,” which was defined as anxiety, depression or stress severe enough to affect an operator’s job performance or family life.
The Air Force has long known anecdotally of the job pressures on drone pilots, who use joysticks and computer screens to fly their aircraft, most typically over Afghanistan, from bases in the United States. But the study, conducted by the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, was the first to try to quantify the strains.
The operators in the study were divided into three groups of people who work hand in hand: Pilots who remotely fly the drones, sensor operators who control the cameras that bring the battlefield into view and mission intelligence coordinators who communicate with troops on the ground. There was also a difference among the drones in the study: Predators and Reapers are armed, and Global Hawks are not.
In one surprising finding that challenged some of the survey’s initial suppositions, the authors found limited stress related to a unique aspect of the operators’ jobs: watching hours of close-up video of people killed in drone strikes. After a strike, operators assess the damage, and unlike fighter pilots who fly thousands of feet above their targets, drone operators can see in vivid detail what they have destroyed.
“The going-in assumption was that we were placing these guys under a great amount of stress because of all this video feed,” said Col. Kent McDonald, the chief of neuropsychiatry at the school of aerospace medicine and one of the study’s two authors.
In one-on-one interviews with 85 operators, the authors found that many felt a sense of accomplishment in protecting troops on the ground. Soldiers and Marines who get pinned down in insurgent fire in Afghanistan often call in airstrikes to get themselves out of trouble, and a drone that comes buzzing overhead is a highly welcome sound. Guided by communications with American troops on the ground, drone operators are then able to aim their missiles directly at insurgents. “These guys are up above firing at the enemy,” Colonel McDonald said. “They love that, they feel like they’re protecting our people. They build this virtual relationship with the guys on the ground.”
Wayne Chappelle, the chief of aerospace psychology at the Air Force school and the study’s other author, said he learned in the interviews that ground troops sometimes sought out the operators by e-mail after a successful strike. “They would want to just say, ‘Hey, thanks, man,’ ” Dr. Chappelle said.
Both Dr. Chappelle and Colonel McDonald said that 4 percent or less of operators were at high risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder, the severe anxiety disorder that can include flashbacks, nightmares, anger, hypervigilance or avoidance of people, places or situations. In those cases, the authors suggested, the operators had seen close-up video of what the military calls collateral damage, casualties of women, children or other civilians. “Collateral damage is unnerving or unsettling to these guys,” Colonel McDonald said.
The percentage of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan at risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder was 12 to 17 percent, the authors said.
In contrast to nearly half of drone operators’ reporting “high operational stress,” 36 percent of a control group of 600 Air Force members in logistics or support jobs reported stress. The Air Force did not compare the stress levels of the drone operators with military pilots who fly planes in the air.
The biggest sources of stress for drone operators remained long hours and frequent shift changes because of staff shortages. The Pentagon has about 7,000 aerial drones, up from 50 a decade ago, and in the next decade expects its number of “multirole” drones — ones that spy as well as strike, like the Reaper — to nearly quadruple, to 536. The Air Force is training more remote pilots, 350 this year alone, than fighter and bomber pilots combined. There are about 1,100 drone pilots in the Air Force.
The study did not include drone operators for the Central Intelligence Agency, which uses drones in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Iran.
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