The AF probably realized that in a contested environment, drones would be useless. If the Iranians can shoot down a $200M Global Hawk with homebrewed missiles,

The AF probably realized that in a contested environment, drones would be useless. If the Iranians can shoot down a $200M Global Hawk with homebrewed missiles, the Russians and Chinese will have no problem. And if you can't shoot them down, just jam GPS etc. That's how the Iranians captured an RQ-170.