BACK ON THE GROUND

This research conducted by David Courpasson since February 2023 Involved interviews with fighter pilots and diverse personnel of military bases, + observation. Artificial Intelligence and other technologies of electronic assistance have profoundly modified the work of fighter pilots, as well as their relationship with danger and with their flying machine. How do fighter pilots’ identities evolve, as pilots were magnified and glorified in the past and are facing today the redefinition of “warlike virtues” and the decrease of budgets allocated for training. What about the coordination practices in teamwork that is based on perfectionism? What about the rites of conviviality in squadrons? How do new generations of pilots see their work and their future? Will there be a pilot in the plane, in twenty years, or will drones take over in the air for combat and surveillance? This research seeks to understand how war professionals adapt their collective and individual work practices, their relationship with their body, with risk, with death, when conventional war and electronic “war at a distance” are clearly in tension in strategic decision of nations