[cameldrv]

Yes, but the parasitic drag scales with velocity squared, and the induced drag scales with mass. Shrink the aircraft by 2 in all dimensions, you're fine on induced drag, you just need to slow down by a factor of 1-sqrt(2) -- 30%. Structural weight will also be much less. You also aren't carrying the weight of a pilot cockpit, ejection seat, etc. You don't have the drag penalty from the canopy either.

You do need to duplicate a lot of systems, but with modern electronics, these are a lot lighter and take much less power than before. The swarm aspect also allows for large synthetic apertures instead of a big single radar aperture in the nose of one aircraft. Swarms can also deploy cheap unguided weapons, because they can get very close to a target without the worry of losing a pilot and a $100 million airplane. The structural advantages of being small can also be exploited in an unmanned vehicle in that they can sustain much higher G loads than a large airplane, and with no pilot to black out, they will be much more agile in evading missiles.