Elon Musk, charged with cracking down on waste across the US federal government, has recently singled out one particular target: the Pentagon’s costly fleet of F-35 fighter jets.
An advocate of autonomous technology, Musk has spent the past few weeks mocking the Lockheed Martin-built aircraft on social media. His comments have added fuel to a debate gripping the defence industry and its customers: does the military still need expensive piloted fighter jets at a time when budgets are pressured and increasingly sophisticated drones are deployed to devastating effect in Ukraine and elsewhere?
“In the same way that mainframe computers got replaced by personal computers and smartphones, are these big manned platforms still going to be relevant in the same way, now that we have other systems that are unmanned and expendable?” said Lorenz Meier, chief executive of US-based Auterion, which is developing software to enable swarms of autonomous drones to communicate with each other.
Although Auterion was not advocating “closing the door” to crewed systems, given the rapid development of AI-powered unmanned systems, there was a “fundamental question” around their future role that needed to be addressed, he added.
In the US, the Air Force earlier this month announced it would delay a decision, originally expected at the end of 2024, on which company would build a new fighter jet as part of the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) programme.
The move means that it will now fall to the incoming Trump administration on whether and how to proceed with the project.
Lockheed Martin said it would work with the “incoming administration, just as we did during President Trump’s first term”.
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Drones are the new level of warfare.
Fighter jets are still the absolute solid winner here in Israel.
Drones may achieve superiority at some point but reusable planes are hugely valuable.
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