Royal Air Force Now Hiring Gamers

[L33tsauce_Marty]

BULLSHIT

I can't express how dumb the idea that they would let untrained civilians pilot lethal war machines worth hundreds of thousands dollars, kill people and posses confidential data, is.

I think it's just a publicity stunt to make people join the army on regular conditions.

They said they would train them...

 

[Erana]

Hey, kids, wanna kill people in real life?!
Great, just great.
Once they start this program, idiots are gonna use this as an anti-gaming argument.

 

[LifeSarcastic]

Hey, kids, wanna kill people in real life?!
Great, just great.
Once they start this program, idiots are gonna use this as an anti-gaming argument.

Good point.Why does everything end up going back to video games. -sigh-

 

[Sigenrecht]

Replace highly trained Tom Cruises and Val Kilmers with some kid who knows how to fly a Banshee in Halo.

I think that right there seemed to take a lot of things out of context. They're not going to hire any hack who can throttle the analog stick, but assuming the ability of gamers to adapt to controllers (i.e. the hilarity of me switching from a Gamecube controller to a Wii Remote) would make a good quality to look for in a job. These are UAVs, not miniaturized fighters. Experience of just how flight can work would certainly help you, but I can see the decreased emphasis. Let the real pilots get up in the air.

 

[SilentHunter7]

I give it 10 weeks before 'pwned' replaces 'splash one' as the official Air Force brevity word for scoring a kill.

And 12 weeks before gamers realize that except for the 10 seconds where you pickle, piloting a drone has all the excitement of driving on the interstate. Plus you get made fun of by 'real' pilots.

 

[Hachura]

Re-enacting the mission "Death from Above" from Call of Duty 4, anyone?

"This is gonna be one hell of a highlight reel..."

 

[Brotherofwill]

I'm really annoyed at all this bullshit army bravado they keep pulling in their ads. It's everywhere, and most often related to gaming.

Take the dumb idiot that plays CoD and put him in a warzone, so much for that plan, manipulating arses.

I don't care if I can't spot some camoflaged person, or don't know who my brothers are (yea right), just leave me alone... and gaming for that matter

 

[dalek sec]

Alright then, where do I sign up for this gig?

 

[Dogstile]

on the one hand, i could easily do this, on the other hand...could i really kill someone?

sure, fine, that's good with me

i bet that you will get some prick who shoots a squad of British troops, and then claims that friendly fire was turned off

 

[RAWKSTAR]

Ive caught all the first 151 pokemon...

Does that count?

 

[Escapefromwhatever]

Sounds to me that instead of using actual pilots, they're training people using their flight-simulators with no actual flight experience. It just so happens to be that the best people for the job are tech-savvy "gamers."

I got 1st place once in a match of Ace Combat 6, does that mean I can join?

 

[orangebandguy]

Awesome!

 

[DamienHell]

Where do I sign up? If it pays for my college I'll fly some planes from the safety of my own home, or military bunker in a non-war zone.

 

[Mookie_Magnus]

Wow.. that's pretty awesome, and I thought that the British gov't hated gamers.
(no offense to any Britons)

 

[Pigeon_Grenade]

Interesting Concept

 

[Talendra]

Yeh lets give people with only 30 hours basic training control of a remote aircraft, sounds fine. A remote aircraft with bombs and missiles.. No.. Just no...

 

[Elurindel]

I played the Death From Above mission on CoD 4
I played Jet Fighter 2 as a kid
I was awesome at Star Crusader
I play DEFCON

However...there's no way in hell I'd go out to the middle east. I get sunburn in the "Great British Summertime". If I could control something from the convenience of far away, maybe. Hell, the pay can't be that bad.