IAF: Man & Machine
MISMATCH

A passion for flying and the zeal to serve one’s country is what defines an IAF pilot. But over the years the number of those leaving and those wanting to leave the Force has been rising.
Ajay Banerjee finds out the reasons for the shortage of pilots in the IAF

Attribute it to insufficient wages, lucrative options in the private sector or just human resource policies that are out of sync with the changing times, the Indian Air Force is facing a shortage of pilots.

A fortnight ago, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major said that the IAF was facing a shortage of at least 400 pilots and that it would take about five years to fill this gap.

IAF sources, however, pegged the present shortage at around 600 pilots, saying that the Air Chief played safe and narrated figures, which had formed part of an answer to a question, raised in Parliament a while ago.

Besides pilots, the Air Force is also facing an overall shortage of officers. At last count, there was a shortfall of 1,500 officers.

The shortage of pilots does not mean that there are not enough hands to fly the planes. Nor are there more planes than the number of pilots.

The IAF has a standard operating procedure of maintaining a ratio of three pilots for one aircraft. At present, the ratio is 2.5:1 pilots to a cockpit.

The ratio of 3:1 is critical and has to be maintained at all times as pilots retire, get promoted and are moved out of active flying duties to handle assignments on the ground or as training instructors. A small number of pilots are on study leave and on attachment with Air India for commercial flying.

With such diverse duties, the number of pilots who are actually doing flying on a day-to-day basis is much less. In case of an emergency, a 3:1 ratio is needed, as the stress level has to be managed and the best man picked for each mission.

A senior official explained that several non-flying duties, too, could be carried out by pilots alone. For example, the logistics of providing goods at Leh or Thoise for onward transmission to a place like Saichen, are best known to a pilot, who understands the limitations of the aircraft as well as the working conditions.

The crunch also arises due to the fact that all exhaustive flying is being done up to the rank of Squadron Leader. Fighter pilots fly till they reach the rank of Wing Commander. Transport pilots continue active operational flying up to the rank of Group Captain. Beyond these ranks the pilots are usually involved in planning and training responsibilities.

The lure of the outside world, too, is hard to resist when one compares the pay and perks offered by the IAF and private airlines. While salaries in the IAF do not go beyond Rs 40,000 at the middle level, commercial airlines are paying five times this amount. Salaries range between Rs 2 and 4 lakh per month depending on a pilot’s experience. And, the demand is not just for the pilots; even experienced engineers are being enticed by the private sector for aircraft maintenance. Fighter pilots, too, are known to have adapted easily to commercial planes for private airlines. Since these pilots have flown supersonic fighter planes, they adjust to commercial planes very quickly. They are inducted as co-pilots and soon after they are able to handle bigger planes as smoothly as a sleek fighter machine.

Though the IAF is offering various incentives like mid-career education and permission to pursue professional degrees, the number of pilots or engineers applying for PMR is rising by the day.

"It is like having reluctant workers who are no longer interested in working but have to carry on as they are not being released from
service", said a pilot.

"There is no exit policy. No golden handshake and no system to cut out people who are not keen", said another pilot, who has applied for PMR. "The salary is not as good as in the private sector, promotions are held back and there is no motivation to carry on", the pilot added.

The Sarang helicopter display team showcases the technological and aeronautical powers of India at Farnborough Air Show in the UK

Senior IAF officers say, bad human resource management is the single biggest deterrent. Life in the IAF is tough and that has to be factored in by policy makers to succeed with any plan for attracting better talent or retaining
the best.

Over the years, it has been noticed that poor human resource management has robbed the air force of its sheen and glamour. Inadequate accommodation at airbases, lack of proper educational facilities, along with lack of career opportunities for spouses of officers, are the main reasons that have made a career in the air force unattractive for many.

Poor housing facility is one of the major deficiencies. Most airbases, especially those in the North-East are located in far off and sometimes even remote areas. Usually one never gets proper accommodation immediately on reaching a new station. On each posting, the first few months are spent in transit accommodation. Packed boxes of luggage are then placed in the garage of a brother officer till the time permanent accommodation is allotted. At bigger stations, the wait can be for as long as a year or more. This leads to frustration as each new posting means disturbance of family life for several months.

The second issue is that of children’s education. A pilot narrated how his course mate had hired a private cab to ferry his daughter, who is studying in class XII, to various coaching classes. He lives in an airbase which is about 20 km away from the nearest big city that offers coaching for children. Even in junior classes, the children have to be sent to Central Schools, as these remain the only option keeping in mind the untimely posting schedule. In several frontline airbases along the Indo-Pak border, children have to travel several miles daily to reach their schools.

A new phenomenon is the professionally qualified wives. Some two decades ago, wives of most of the pilots were either homemakers or teachers, who could get a job easily in the nearest central school. Now the wives of many pilots are professionals like doctors, architects, airhostesses, and software engineers. This means that virtually no jobs exist for them outside major cities. This is a problem, which is actually beyond the control of the IAF. In comparison, if a pilot works for a private airline, it means living in a big city where his children get better educational facilities and there are better career prospects for his spouse.

The IAF is working on a two-pronged strategy to reduce the shortage. This is to "retain" and "attract" the best. A publicity campaign has been launched. Since January this year, the IAF has also started short service commission (SSC) for fighter pilots. The SSC is already in place for transport pilots. So far, the response has been good.

This means a pilot will work with the IAF for a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 14 years. If the pilot is inducted at say 22 years of age, he will have a viable career option when he is released from service in his late 30s. Also this means that the government will not be footing the pension bill as the SSC officers don’t get pension. At the most, pilots will be released by the time they get the rank of Wing Commander. The permanent commissioned officers will hold the higher posts in times to come.

Bound to serve THE IAF has a valid reason for not releasing all the pilots and engineers who apply for pre-mature release (PMR). Several crores are spent on training these pilots. According to a rough estimate, it costs almost Rs 8 crore to train one fighter pilot, about Rs 6 crore to train a transport pilot and Rs 4 crore to train a helicopter pilot. The logic in not releasing all those who apply for pre-mature release is simple. A pilot has to fly for the maximum number of years for the country as so much has been spent on his training by the government. “We are not holding people back for nothing,” a senior IAF officer said while speaking on condition of anonymity. A batch of newcomers and less experienced pilots can’t fill in for a group of specialised and fully trained ones. It takes time to train a person to the required operational level. The sooner a pilot is released from service, the greater is the pension bill. The crores spent on training can’t be wasted by allowing a pilot to shift to the private sector, maintain senior officials. Ideally, a pilot completes 20 years of service — the basic minimum to qualify for pension benefit — in his early forties. With life expectancy having gone up, it is believed that defence personnel may live up to 80 years. In such a scenario, pension would be paid for almost 40 years to a man who, most likely, is flying a commercial plane elsewhere until he is 60. So why not continue to use the services of the pilots in the force. They are now used for ground duties and for training future pilots in the academies. This also helps to cut down on the pension bill. A senior functionary said it was an erroneous impression that the IAF is not allowing its personnel to leave. In his opinion, people want to leave after getting training just because of the greed to earn lakhs. Let them work anywhere after the IAF releases them. The IAF has three considerations for allowing PMR. An officer has to be superseded thrice; secondly, if he has been declared medically unfit and third on compassionate grounds. In the last case, compassionate ground means in case the officer’s child is terminally ill or in case he is the only child and his parents are alone and terminally ill. In case an officer is superseded thrice, he is allowed to leave and the same is the case when someone is medically unfit.  A former Air Chief once famously said if he released all those who wanted a PMR, then there could be a serious shortfall and “in case of an emergency I cannot just turn around and say sorry I have no pilots to fly the fighters and to ferry loads in a transport aircraft”. — A.B.

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