Time for a break? Perceptions and impacts of reconstitution among United States Air Force remotely piloted aircraft personnel.

Abstract

United States Air Force remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) aircrew and support personnel perform critical missions in support of military operations around the world. The high value placed on the work of these individuals has resulted in increased workload and heightened risk of adverse psychological health outcomes. The impact of this can be detrimental to the health of the individual as well as the success of the RPA mission. To address these concerns, a combat-to-reconstitution policy was developed to provide additional downtime and recovery to RPA personnel, and recently piloted in some units within the RPA community. A total of 397 RPA personnel, of which 26% (n = 103) indicated their schedule was either internal or external reconstitution, completed an anonymous occupational health assessment sometime between November 2021 and July 2022. Responses included a mixture of both positive and negative experiences during the implementation of reconstitution, along with recommendations for improvements. Certain reconstitution-related sources of stress (e.g. work overload, lack of resources), were found to increase risk of burnout or psychological distress. Overall, this preliminary study provides a foundational landscape for the scientific and operational understanding of reconstitution as an operational intervention to improve recovery.