The revolutionary Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs) (wingmen superdrones) will transform the F-35 Lightning a costly waste into efficient and useful weapon systems. The superdrones are also critical to the overall NGAD (next generation air dominance fighter) initiative.
Stealthy fighters and drones need to hold the missiles internally to avoid detection. The superdrones will be able to compensate for the reduced weapons capacity. They will give a lot of flexibility to the main manned fighters. They can add radar jamming equipment and act as decoys.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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In 2010 I recall mentioning to the President of the Air Force Association that many of the F-22s and F-35s coming into production might well have their cockpits removed before being retired entirely. Oh, I said, a few would still retain them for specialized purposes, but that might be about it.
I do believe a major obstacle was/is that most general officers in the Air Force were/are former pilots, of which fighter pilots were/are the top dogs. No one wants to see their life’s work fade away into history.
Swarms of less expensive miniature suicide aircraft make more sense to me. USAF has a macho problem.