Quote:
Originally Posted by jammies
If I can afford to put 10 drones into the air for every 1 jet pilot you can field, it doesn't matter how much better the pilot is at fighting air-to-air. You don't need to be as good, you only need to be good enough. Further, a drone can do acrobatics that no pilot could ever do, because the limitations of the human body are no longer an issue.
Ten years from now, air-to-air will be dominated by the nation with the best drones and support planes. Already air-to-air combat is determined more by who can see the other first with superior electronics, and who has the weaponry to strike from further away rather than pilot skill, and it's been that way for decades now. This is just the obvious next step.
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I don't agree with your viewpoint on this. and we'll probably have to leave it at that. Acrobatic ability is great and looks pretty, but the human pilot is capable of being unpredictable.
Missile technology is great but not perfect and you have to be able to lock on first.
Also with a lot of the focus being on denial of communication, there a risk that I can drop your 10 drones out of the sky by pushing the enter button on a keyboard. Its one of the biggest worries in the American military right now and why they don't see Drones as a viable air defense strategy.
Plus maneuverability doesn't matter as much in the missile age since a missile is just a drone.
I don't buy that drones are the next immediate natural progression for air forces as a primary weapons bed. That day might come but not for another generation or 2