Carriers with drones right now are where aircraft carriers were in the 1920’s. Lot of people think it’s a waste of time and money. But the payoffs could be big.
Several thoughts
-Training a pilot with todays military requirements takes 5 years. In WW2 it was 9 months. With a peer advisory we’re going to be loosing a lot of people we cannot replace. But if their drone pilots sitting on a carrier the survivability is much better. Also when a drone pilot is shot down. He lives to learn from his mistake. A fighter pilot usually doesn’t.
-Drones can be made cheaply and assembled within a month. An F35 takes 6-18 months to complete.
-Drones are disposable, things like F35’s are NOT.
-A kamikaze attack is a death sentence for a fighter pilot. If a drone pilot does a kamikaze attack. He just logs into the next drone that’s prepped and flys out to the enemy ship while it’s still burning to finish the job.
-Taking out a 200lb pilot with another few hundred pounds of support equipment leaves a lot of weight savings for bombs, fuel and electronic warfare. Also let’s you make the airframe more aerodynamic.