Not that I know anything about military technology, but given that the R&D costs for the F35 are about twice what they were for the F16, adjusted for inflation, it seems a given that the costs for these manned fighter programs are not going to be sustainable. Wouldn’t it make more sense to invest in drone technology?
It is literally he most expensive weapon in human history, bar none. Manhattan project, carriers, ICBMs, Nuclear subs, the B2,,, no. The 35 is the most expensive.
We aren’t getting something commensurate with the expense.
The USAF considered it so inferior to the F-15 in concept (single engined, lightweight, less payload carrying capability) that they considered it a stopgap or supplemental fighter. F-16 squadrons were supposed to die while holding an enemy air fleet at bay until the F-15s could come in and save them, like the cavalry in a movie. The fighter mafia mocked the F-16 by calling it a "lawn dart".
The F-35 is conceived to replace a variety of first line airplanes, the F-16, F/A-18 and A-10 in this country as well as several european airplanes like the Tornado for example. The F-35 is also designed to compete and maintain an edge in the modern air battlefield environment.
It has more advanced elements than any current US design, even the F-22, does in battlefield communications networking. It uses a helmet cueing system that the the F-15, F-16 and F-22 don't have (the F/A-18 does now) where the pilot looks at the target rather than points the plane at the target. It gives it's pilot 360 degree visibility and unprecidented situational awareness. The Pilot can literally visualize targets underneath the airplane, a blind spot for all conventional airplanes up to now...
Finally,it is designed from the ground up to be stealthy, survivable and lethal. All elements any pilot would love to have in a combat environment. With all that capability, it is coupled with the most capable analytical data processing system available, a pilot.
Drones go where they are pointed do what they are told to do and are controlled by someone half a hemisphere away. There are time delays between drone sensor acquisition, data linking, remote situational interpretation, response uplinking, the drone reacting to the response and even that reaction is based on the signal at the start of the process, not real time.
That is why drones are used as targets.