[wildcard_redneck]

"There is a reason why pilots need thousands and thousands of hours on a particular craft to be considered an expert."

That it takes thousands of hours to learn to fly an F-16 is a design failure. The software systems and the interfaces must be a real hack job.

The radar and missile system software should be able to track and identify targets as well as propose what missiles should be used and when, like a video game with a great interface. They are now commercial and publicly available augmented reality headsets that could be used to vastly improve the lethality of the F-16.

[LukeL]

It takes thousands of hours to become an expert on anything. You can use simulators and other such methods as well. Further combat training requires putting the airframe to its limits and something like that cannot be learned in a couple months.