[E. Pluribus Unum]

UCAVs (Uninhabited Combat Air Vehicles) will eventually be able to do anything a piloted fighter can do, plus they can be designed to be more aerodynamically efficient and stealthier than piloted aircraft because you don't have to design around the cockpit, plus they will be able to maneuver in ways that would generate too many G-forces for a human pilot to survive. Once a UCAV can outmaneuver a human-piloted fighter, the day of the human-piloted fighter will be over.

Instead of airmen who must train thousand of hours at a cost of millions of dollars and risk their lives on every mission, you can have computer geeks sitting behind consoles tens of thousands of miles away from the theater of operation and take out bad guys and their installations at the click of a mouse.

Combat fighters are a proud lot with a long and honorable tradtion, but just like everybody else, they are going to be replaced by computers.

The Predator is just the beginning.

[Haro_546]

My point. The F-22 should be canceled.

[Quix]

And that's just

one thin line of options available

among the more mundane, conventional and . . . somewhat boring platforms available.

[NY Attitude]

Yes, and they come in many varieties.