“human judgment required for strategic deterrence”
What does that even mean??
No, not while paying for all the other crap we do that is not a government function.
They’re going to be a lot cheaper than the B-2 Spirit. Those are $2.1 billion EACH. The B-21 Raider projected unit price is at $692 million each.
I know those are projected costs but they will still be fair cheaper.
Aren’t drones piloted by humans?
“Can we even afford it?”
Nothing costs more than losing a war.
> Can we even afford it? <
In 1941 Germany and the USSR got into a little spat. Germany emphasized quality over quantity. The USSR did just the opposite.
And we all know how that turned out.
Is there a lesson there? I’m not a field marshal, or even a general. So I dunno.
Going all in on drones is a fool’s errand. As shown in Nazi Ukraine and Commie Russia they can be jammed. Any datalink will eventually be jammed.
Manned aircraft will never go away, and they never should.
Consider the recent raid on Iran. There was no other means to deliver massive bunker buster ordinance than the B-2. However, I have wondered if the proposed kinetic energy weapons, the so called rods from God, using super dense materials delivered from orbit or by ICBM with a devastating punch are still being developed. That type of weapon could also have rendered the Iranian nuclear facility useless without the cost and logistics effort needed for the B-2 strike.
Nope