re: The guys who ride behind the pilot in jet fighters..

My sources tel me it’s usually tourists, pay 5000$ per flight

I only know this because my brother flys them. I am by no means an expert on this stuff lol

A lot of the single seat jets have a 2 seat option for training and what not OP. I’m not in the military but most of the combat planes that have a 2nd seat the 2nd person is NOT a trained pilot. My dad started his career as a navigator and then went to pilot training, for example.

Some solid responses in this thread lol

so much wrong, some funny, but so much wrong :

Here's a video from Ward Carroll, an actual F-14 RIO (retired). He has a great channel about all sorts of military stuff and several videos about the Top Gun films. He was even one of those involved in the short spoof "Pop Gun" that circulated among Navy pilots back in the 80s.

This is a video about his career and how he became a RIO (instead of a pilot) and what training he went through.

Secrets of the F-14 Tomcat: RIO Responsibilities

Wizzo not Lizzo

They are simply there to tell the guy in the front seat to speed up or slow down or that he just flew past the target because he’s lost…

AF F-4s had dual controls but you can’t see shite sitting in back, at the start of the VN war the AF would put a pilot in the back seat (GIB -guy in back ,)that didn’t go over well so they began to train non rated officers as WSOs(weapons systems officers,) or RIOs(radar intercept officers,) to help acquire targets, pilot does the actual shooting, usually the non-rated guy wanted pilot training but typically had a minor physical issue (usually eyesight,) preventing that, typically you could get a waiver and eventually get pilot training, not always, if you got shot down and taken POW and survived, guaranteed pilot training

That's not even remotely true. Back seaters in F-15E's and F-18 Super Hornets aren't Pilots. They're navigators, specially trained Navigators, but they all start by going to Nav school.