Why not drones instead of the F-35? They started the F-35 project in '92. And if we're gonna play "why not" with the F-35, why not 3 frames for 3 roles as all

Why not drones instead of the F-35? They started the F-35 project in '92. And if we're gonna play "why not" with the F-35, why not 3 frames for 3 roles as all the aviation experts and real world economics suggest? Drones of this capacity are coming in on the sides, are inevitable if the shit ever hits the fan, and provide tons of advantages. In addition to crazy manoeuvres and no issue being a kamakazi missile you've got machine learning enhancements and teams of remote pilots able to step in fresh to help. They also integrate well with existing forces. In essence, though, some of the kinds of roles for the F-35 are roles we still want human eyeballs for the forseeable future. The drone model is untested as the default solution, so we "need" the aircraft anyways, and the end-product will be some proper SkyNet stuff people are likely to have problems with. The tech is evolving, but the weapons program answer is that we need both solutions and the F-35 program is unkillable.