The Army is slashing thousands of active duty pilots, flight crews, and helicopter maintenance jobs as the service begins a fundamental pivot towards unmanned drones for modern wars, officials told Task & Purpose.
The service will begin cutting nearly 6,500 active duty aviation jobs in fiscal years 2026 and 2027 as part of the Army’s broader transformation initiative.
The Army currently has around 30,000 aviation branch soldiers, but “talent panels” scheduled for October will decide which officers and warrant officers will be retained and which will transfer to a different branch within the Army. The service will also decide whether to hold similar talent panels for its enlisted aviation soldiers, which includes most flight crew and nearly all mechanics and maintenance troops, Army officials said.
“The use of airspace for maneuver that was once unique to our formations is now becoming accessible to soldiers in multiple formations via drone technology,” Maj. Montrell Russell, an Army spokesperson, told Task & Purpose. “The Army is rapidly transforming to meet the changing character of war and leverage these technological advancements, which is inducing changes in both ground and air formations to optimize our collective force structure.”
The strategy to cut aviators is a switch from the Army’s efforts to fill out its pilot force less than a decade ago. In 2019, the service offered pay raises and promotion opportunities to meet a warrant officer shortage of almost 700 soldiers.
As the service reduces its aviation force, Army leaders are doing an ongoing analysis “to determine the appropriate approved excess strength to minimize turbulence,” Russell said.
The 6,500 cuts are separate from the nearly 4,600 reserve soldiers who are facing cuts, a drawdown reported by Military.com. With those moves, the Army plans to eliminate all Army Reserve helicopter units by the end of the summer.
Army officials said the Reserve Command is working on its own manpower plan “to address the unique circumstances” for their soldiers.
Talent panels
The panels will look at first and second lieutenants, captains, and junior warrant officers assigned to Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, according to a MILPER message issued Wednesday by Army Human Resources Command.
“Transitions will be based on needs of the Army in order to fill other aviation population shortages or Army requirements,” the bulletin said.
The panels will be made up of a brigadier general, a former brigade commander, and senior warrant officers, according to the MILPER message. Those leaders will decide on retention or reclassification based on officer evaluations, “input on potential” from aviation leaders, and “demonstrated tactical aptitude” based on how far in the process warrant officers are for achieving “pilot in command” status, officials said.
Along with assessing “potential,” the panel will also seek input from the officers themselves “to understand their career desires and determine if they have a skillset or interest outside of Aviation that would offer significant benefit to the Army,” Russell said.
Soldiers who are transferred out of Army aviation will be able to use the Officer Rebranch Program & Voluntary Transfer Incentive Program.
In 2024, under the rebranch program, Army Human Resources Command offered a roughly month-long window for infantry, armor, field artillery and engineering lieutenants to voluntarily transfer into “understrength” career fields like air defense, logistics, signal corps, information technology, engineering and space operations.
“The effort to conduct the Aviation talent panel in an expeditious manner is with the intent of providing notification in sufficient time for our officers and warrant officers to consider these opportunities and submit applications,” Russell said.
