“When will we abandon this thing?”
I’m guessing that this will be the last piloted fighter.
“I’m guessing that this will be the last piloted fighter.”
Yes and no. It will probably be the last super expensive manned plane. But I suspect the battlefield of the future will be swarmed with updated propeller driven support aircraft similar to the Super Tucano. Then again, robotic swarm technology may make them obsolete too. The point is that the guy on the ground needs somebody above him or he’s just so much meat waiting to be butchered.
We have to stop designing vehicles so expensive that their loss impacts the entire war effort. Incidentally, I think stealth will prove to have limited value in the long run as counter technologies, which are cheaper and faster to develop, will proliferate. We will end up with hundred-million dollar aircraft that are too valuable too risk and too vulnerable to use.