I do appreciate your perspective RogerL. And I do appreciate the fact that we're taking about "cool" robotics that are primarily intended to cause pain, suffering and death. Sometimes at a large scale.
The political reality of the USA right now is that we've got a huge military industrial complex, and it ain't going away anytime soon. One way or the other, we're going to be building weapon systems for air superiority and other uses.
Whether or not that is all a good idea is a discussion for another day. I think that over the last two decades, the USA could have been using more "soft power" to better accomplish our long-term strategic goals than with the precision guided munitions that seemed to be the preferred solution.
Anyway...
At this point, I'd just like to (A) see a better value for my tax dollar. And (B) I'd like to see our military prepared properly for the next war rather than the last one.
With regards to (A), on the cheap vs. expensive scale, I strongly think that we have erred on the side of expensive with regards to the F-35 (and the F-22). I think the Super Hornet (F/A-18E) is expensive enough as it is. Sure, the Navy bought it first, so of course the Air Force doesn't want it...
As far as (B) goes, with all the sabre-rattling we get from Russia and China, realistically speaking, we're not going to be another shooting war with either of them. I'd rather we have more weapon systems that can deal better with the threats we currently have, and will face next. I don't see how the F-35 can really help with that either, in part because the cost means we can't deploy them in the numbers we really ought to.
I realize that automation right now is not up to what a pilot can do, but it is rapidly improving. I'd rather we have a base platform that can accept upgrades easily as they become available, and that can be deployed in numbers to be effective.
The political reality of the USA right now is that we've got a huge military industrial complex, and it ain't going away anytime soon. One way or the other, we're going to be building weapon systems for air superiority and other uses.
Whether or not that is all a good idea is a discussion for another day. I think that over the last two decades, the USA could have been using more "soft power" to better accomplish our long-term strategic goals than with the precision guided munitions that seemed to be the preferred solution.
Anyway...
At this point, I'd just like to (A) see a better value for my tax dollar. And (B) I'd like to see our military prepared properly for the next war rather than the last one.
With regards to (A), on the cheap vs. expensive scale, I strongly think that we have erred on the side of expensive with regards to the F-35 (and the F-22). I think the Super Hornet (F/A-18E) is expensive enough as it is. Sure, the Navy bought it first, so of course the Air Force doesn't want it...
As far as (B) goes, with all the sabre-rattling we get from Russia and China, realistically speaking, we're not going to be another shooting war with either of them. I'd rather we have more weapon systems that can deal better with the threats we currently have, and will face next. I don't see how the F-35 can really help with that either, in part because the cost means we can't deploy them in the numbers we really ought to.
I realize that automation right now is not up to what a pilot can do, but it is rapidly improving. I'd rather we have a base platform that can accept upgrades easily as they become available, and that can be deployed in numbers to be effective.