[saganite]

Despite the protestations in the article I'm betting it will be unmanned.

[DesScorp]

"Despite the protestations in the article I'm betting it will be unmanned."

If they're smart, it will be. The age of manned combat aircraft is drawing to a close. Even today's fighters like the F-16 are capable of better performance, but are limited by human factors, such as G tolerance. An unmanned aircraft doesn't have that problem, and satellite controls are already good enough to steer them remotely at long distances, as Global Hawk has proved. The only problem is with the software that would be involved...it will inevitably be the biggest source of problems.