Originally Posted By: bubbatime
The future of warfare is drones, not uber expensive stealth aircraft. We should be putting a lot more of our resources in drone research programs.
Imagine in World War 3, China manufactures drones by the tens of thousands, trains a bunch of 16 year old video game player kids to fly them remotely. Sure air defenses can stop some of the drones, but not all of them. THIS is the future that we need to be concerned with.
Yes....and no...
They fly them remotely. We kill the link. The drones are no threat. Drones attack the US? They wouldn't have the range, unless they're big, in which case, they don't have thousands, and we have the F-22 for defense of the US.
On the other side of the Pacific, China's robust air defenses are no match for the stealthy F-35s flying from carriers. Those F-35s are teamed up with stealthy, autonomous drones like the X-47B....
The future of air warfare has a drone element in it...like the future of police work has robots in it...but the robot isn't about to replace the patrol car, or beat cop...not yet...
There is no drone that can go air to air. They are all built for air to ground. And all except a few are slow, non-stealthy, cheap airplanes. Add range, speed, payload, and they become very expensive to build...you're building a manned airplane without the man, so you don't save much...