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Study: UAV crews tired, strained by shortage

Unmanned aerial vehicle operators are more likely than other aircrews to suffer from chronic fatigue, emotional exhaustion, burnout and impaired domestic relationships, according to a new study by the Naval Postgraduate School.

The survey of 66 MQ-1 Predator crew members at Nellis Air Force, Nev., in December 2006 found that nearly half suffered levels of sleepiness during work hours that can be expected to hurt their job performance.

And about 40 percent of the operators surveyed reported a moderate-to-high likelihood of falling asleep at their stations while operating a weapon-carrying, remotely piloted aircraft, according to the study.

The study, released in March, was conducted for the Air Force’s 311th Human Systems Wing Performance Enhancement Directorate at Brooks City-Base, Texas.

The report comes at a time when Air Force officials are growing increasingly worried about the shortage of UAV operators.

Indeed, the study found that “a lack of adequate manpower” is the root cause of the problem.

The Air Force operates its UAVs around-the-clock, requiring operators to work long shifts and odd hours. This shift system contributes to the exhaustion problems, the study found.

Two groups — pilots and women — seem to suffer the most severe problems, according to the study.

“Pilots were found to have higher mental fatigue scores than sensor operators, suggesting a possible task-related contribution to their fatigue,” the study says.

And women were found to suffer higher levels of emotional exhaustion than their male counterparts, the study found.

UAV operators’ personal lives also suffered. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed said their work schedules left them inadequate time for their spouses and recreation.

Surprisingly, changing to a monthly rather than weekly shift system that was intended to allow operators to adjust to their schedules did not decrease the level of fatigue.

This finding led the authors to conclude that manpower shortages, rather than any particular shift system, are to blame. Modeling of the effects of changing to different shift systems predicted no improvement, the study found.

The authors used as a control group a 2005 survey of E-3B Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System crew members, who , like UAV operators, are in a high-demand, low-density career field.

They found that UAV operators suffer significantly higher mental fatigue and reduced ability to concentrate than AWACS crews.