[kilolima]

Why spend $$ on a high performance air-superiority fighter when you can have one flying truck (F-35) controlling 20 cheap air to air drones? Even if a drone is just a disposable way to draw fire it's still a deal compared to a manned F-22.

[throwup238]

That's the separate robot wingman program that's running in parallel to the F22 - the MIC can multitask. They're working on different jets for that like the XQ-58 Valkyrie [1].

The problem is that for air-superiority the F22 has incredible performance. One of their biggest problem when they launched was that pilots kept blacking out from the g-forces and suffering lasting effects. A drone to match it isn't going to be that much cheaper because the life support isn't really the most expensive part of the package.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kratos_XQ-58_Valkyrie

[kjkjadksj]

A fighter with a human can only pull so many Gs so a drone fighter will always outmaneuver a manned fighter of the same generation, probably outgun it too now you can pack more missiles where the body used to be.

[throwup238]

Theoretically, yes, but someone has to actually design and build a drone capable of doing that first. The F22/F35 are flagships fighter jets so they're built to be far more performant than drones have been so far because before modern AI, a fully automated fighter jet wingman was considered impractical.

Making drones like that is only worth it if an adversary has something worth destroying that can't be done with cheaper hardware like cruise missiles.

[kjkjadksj]

They already have drone craft that are actually based on the space shuttle platform that are probably doing things that would be impossible with a human inside, like the x37 orbiting the earth for two and a half years. Their exact capabilities and missions are classified though. These are also just the craft that have been revealed to the public, who knows the true capabilities of whats been built and what exactly is on the table in the near future.