Navy cutting pilot training as some aircraft head for retirement
By: Associated Press | ∞
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- The Navy is cutting back pilot training because more veteran pilots are staying in the service at the same time some aircraft are headed for retirement, including the last of its F-14 Tomcat fighters of "Top Gun" movie fame.
About 160 fewer pilots will be trained this year, a 13 percent reduction from approximately 1,200 student aviators who usually win their wings annually, said Lt. Rob Lyon, a spokesman for the Naval Air Training Command in Corpus Christi, Texas.
The reduction will be obtained by increasing standards, starting with aviation preflight indoctrination, a ground school student aviators attend at Pensacola Naval Air Station.
If the changes fail to weed out enough students, higher standards also may be applied in various phases of flight training.
The Navy is phasing out the Tomcat and S-3 Viking anti-submarine aircraft. Also, it recently decommissioned two squadrons of EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare planes.
The Tomcats are being replaced by F/A-18E and F/A-18F Super Hornet fighters.
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