>An aircraft is now just a mobile long-range weapons platform. That same type of thinking was prevalent in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Its failings ultimat

>An aircraft is now just a mobile long-range weapons platform. That same type of thinking was prevalent in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Its failings ultimately led to the creation of the Navy Fighter Weapons School, more commonly known as TOPGUN.[1] Positive target identification sometimes requires closing within visual range of the target. As long as there's still a human in the cockpit, the necessity of pilots being trained and equipped for dogfighting will persist. Even then, there's still going to be dogfighting in a sense, because one of the foremost advantages of autonomous figher aircraft is their ability to execute high-G maneuvers far in excess of what humans can tolerate. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_Fighter_Weapons_School#Genesis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_Fighter_Weap...