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>> in a war against an enemy with a strong air defense (against ever other enemy stealth doesn't make a difference anyway) exact how many of these planes can yo

>> in a war against an enemy with a strong air defense (against ever other enemy stealth doesn't make a difference anyway) exact how many of these planes can you afford to loose without ruining your air force and your economy with it? > It strikes me that having an entire fleet of high stealth aircraft is only going to be important for... maybe the first 48 hours of any conflict. It goes against the generalist, jack-of-all trades dogma; but I think the air force should have cheaper non/less-stealthy designs of equal or greater performance for almost every role occupied by a stealth plane.

angry_octet 7y ago
The air forces if the world are run by air combat pilots, and until that changes there will be manned aircraft and it will be a priority that killing them is difficult. So drones are a long way off in that sense, at least until we have a drone-vs-manned war where the drones win. It should also be noted that in stealth '5th gen' drone vs '4th gen' drone simulation, the stealth drones win convincingly, not because they are 'invisible' but because they can shoot first, before the other drone can get a lock. Personally I think we're more likely to see '5th gen' drone wingmen. Finally each SQNLDR will have their own squadron, albeit robotic. With short range comms are much harder to jam, but it's uncharted territory to see how the leader will guide the engagement.