I fear we are reaching the same point, vis-à-vis manned versus unmanned fighters.
The USAF has what we used to call the “Fighter Mafia”, back in the 1990s, led by General McPeak, but basically these boys believed that the fighter pilot's skill and daring-do were all that mattered to first sweep the skies of the enemy before bombing, close air support, etc.
And even so, sweeping the skies of the enemy really is job #1 for the USAF--otherwise our people die in aerial attacks when their people should die in OUR aerial attacks--i.e., CAS.
Now that was 20-30 years ago, but the USAF has been doing counter-insurgency for 20 years now and lost there focus on a larger, more lethal enemy like Russia or China.
There is no Taliban or ISIS Air Force we have to fight. Those skills get lost.
I fear that the focus now goes back to the manned fighter, when we really should be looking at unmanned Aerial weapons. Weapons that are far cheaper than a single fighter (like the F-35, which now runs $130 million each) and because of this, so many more can be deployed in fight.
The first country to figure this out, and can make robust, autonomous fighting drones in large numbers will, imho, win the next big war.
That could also mean autonomous ships and subs. I fear the days of Cyberdine and SkyNet are close at hand!
