Number of Nonflying Positions

In fiscal year 1996, the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Air Force designated 11,336 positions as nonflying positions to be filled by aviators. These nonflying positions represent about 25 percent of all authorized aviator positions. As shown in table 1, the total number of nonflying positions has decreased since fiscal year 1994 and is expected to continue to decrease slightly up through fiscal year 2001. ACIP and ACP Paid to Aviators in Flying and Nonflying Positions

All aviators receive ACIP, regardless of whether they are in flying or nonflying positions, if they meet the following criteria. ACP criteria are more flexible than ACIP in deciding who receives it, the amount paid, and the length of the contract period. For fiscal years 1994 through April 30, 1996, the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Air Force made ACIP and ACP payments to their aviators totaling $909.1 million. However, the way the services implement this incentive varies widely in terms of who receives ACP, the length of time over which it is paid, and how much is paid. Effect of Nonflying Positions on Aviator Training Requirements

The services include nonflying positions in their aviator requirements for determining future aviator training needs. Therefore, aviator training requirements reflect the number of aviators needed to fill both flying and nonflying positions. Because nonflying positions are included in the total aviator requirements, the Navy and the Marine Corps project aviator shortages for fiscal  years 1997-2001 and the Air Force projects aviator shortages for fiscal  years 1998-2001. As shown in table 5, there are more than enough pilots and navigators available to meet all flying position requirements. Therefore, to the extent that the number of the nonflying positions filled by aviators could be reduced, the number of aviators that need to be trained, as shown in table 4, could also be reduced. This, in turn, would enable the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the Air Force to reduce their aviator training costs by as much as $5 million for each pilot and $2 million for each navigator that the services would not have to train. The savings to the Army would be less because its aviator training costs are about $366,000 for each pilot. The point, however, is that the services have not determined that all the nonflying positions require aviator expertise. The data were submitted to the appropriate Defense Financial Accounting System offices for the Army, the Air Force, and the Marine Corps to identify the amounts of aviation career incentive pay (ACIP) and aviation continuation pay (ACP) paid to each aviator.
Why GAO Did This Study

GAO reviewed certain Department of Defense (DOD) nonflying positions, focusing on: (1) the number of aviators (pilots and navigators) that are assigned to nonflying positions in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force; (2) the amount of aviation career incentive pay (ACIP) and aviation continuation pay (ACP) paid to aviators in nonflying positions; (3) whether the services implement ACIP and ACP uniformly; and (4) whether the nonflying positions affect the number of aviators the services plan to train to meet future requirements.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) for fiscal year (FY) 1996, the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force designated 11,336 positions, or about 25 percent of all aviator positions, as nonflying positions to be filled by aviators; (2) since FY 1994, the number of nonflying positions has decreased and this decrease is expected to continue through 2001 when the number of such positions is estimated to be 10,553; (3) for fiscal years 1994 through April 30, 1996, the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force paid $739.7 million in ACIP, of which $179.1 million was paid to aviators in nonflying positions; (4) additionally, the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force paid $169.4 million in ACP, of which $31.9 million was paid to aviators in nonflying positions; (5) the Army does not pay ACP; (6) ACIP is payable to all aviators who meet certain flying requirements and all the services implement it in a consistent fashion; (7) with ACP, however, the services have a great deal of latitude in deciding who receives it, the length of time it is paid and the amount that is paid; (8) in determining their aviator training requirements, the services consider both flying and nonflying positions; (9) including nonflying positions increases the total aviator requirements and results in the services projecting aviator shortages in the upcoming fiscal years; (10) however, GAO's analysis showed that there are more than enough aviators available to satisfy all flying position requirements; (11) to the extent that the number of nonflying positions filled by aviators can be reduced, the number of aviators that need to be trained also could be reduced, saving training costs of about $5 million for each Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force pilot candidate and about $2 million for each navigator candidate; and (12) the savings to the Army would be about $366,000 for each pilot training requirement eliminated.