I don’t know if there will be drone fighters. I think the idea is old thinking that can make a better dogfighter, but dog fighting is obsolete. The important qu

I don’t know if there will be drone fighters. I think the idea is old thinking that can make a better dogfighter, but dog fighting is obsolete. The important question is would it be maneuverable enough to avoid anti-air missiles and it doesn’t sound like they would be. Other problem is that they won’t be cheap. High performance military aircraft are expensive. My guess is only get factor of two in cost. Also, there is size tradeoff with payload. Drone that can’t carry AMRAAM is useless. The purpose of fighters have changed. Missiles have taken over many of the roles. The roles that remain require intelligence. Both Ukraine and Russian fighters are not being used much because SAMs make things too dangerous. When they do, it is low level attacks that would be hard for drones. I think developing drone fighter AI would be hard. Recent AI advances have been more about generation than planning. We could do it but would be expensive; look at how much has been spent on self-driving. The basic things are simple but the important things are complicated. For example, drone could have intercepted and shot down balloon but couldn’t have inspected balloon or involved in planning. Finally, the US has pivoted from developing drone fighters to bomb truck. The idea would that accompany fighters and carry more ammo. It would be less maneuverable and simpler and use extra space for fuel and bombs. I think it is telling that multiple countries have tried drone fighters and none have gone for them.