Army cutting 6,500 aviation jobs as it moves toward drones

Patty Nieberg

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Warrant Officer 1 Alan Ortiz, a UH-60 Blackhawk pilot, trains in a flight simulator. The Army plans to slash thousands of aviation positions as it pivots to unmanned aircraft. Army photo by Sgt. Olivia Cowart.

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.