Are Special Project Airborne Electronics Evaluators at Risk Due to AI?

Perform and direct in-flight duties to ensure the successful completion of combat, reconnaissance, transport, and search and rescue missions. Duties include operating aircraft communications and radar equipment, such as establishing satellite linkages and jamming enemy communications capabilities; operating aircraft weapons and defensive systems; conducting preflight, in-flight, and postflight inspections of onboard equipment; and directing cargo and personnel drops.

The occupation "Air Crew Officers" (slug "air-crew-officers") carries an automation risk of 0.0%, reflecting the highly specialized and dynamic nature of this role. The base risk is calculated at 0.0%, indicating that current and foreseeable automation technologies are unable to fully replace these professionals. Air Crew Officers operate in environments where they must respond to rapidly changing situations, making use of judgment, interpersonal communication, and improvisation—traits that machines do not yet possess at a human-equivalent level. While advancements in aviation technology have automated certain systems on aircraft, the overarching safety and management of the flight still depend on human oversight. The unique combination of in-flight leadership, crisis management, and mission-specific requirements places this occupation among those least susceptible to automation. Despite this low automation risk, some tasks within the Air Crew Officer's duties are more amenable to automation than others. The top three most automatable tasks include routine checklist management, monitoring of aircraft system readouts, and standardized in-flight communications protocols. These tasks involve followable procedures and predictable decision pathways, making them easier to support or augment with automated systems. Nonetheless, these tasks generally represent a small fraction of the Air Crew Officer’s overall workload, and current automation is used to assist rather than to replace human input in these areas. Importantly, even these automatable elements require human verification and occasionally override due to the unpredictable and high-stakes environment of flight operations. In contrast, the primary value of Air Crew Officers lies in the tasks most resistant to automation. The top three most resistant tasks are crisis decision-making in emergencies, dynamic team leadership and crew coordination, and mission-specific tactical planning. These responsibilities demand advanced human skills such as situational awareness, adaptability, and complex communication under stress. The bottleneck skills critical to this occupation include advanced problem-solving (Expert), judgment and decision-making (Expert), and communication and leadership (Expert). Machines cannot replicate the nuanced, real-time reasoning and crisis management that these roles require. As a result, the critical bottleneck skills form a robust barrier to full automation, preserving the need for highly trained human Air Crew Officers well into the future.