Musk Pushes Drones Over Jet Fighters --- Trump's team will have to decide on what the future is for piloted aircraft

 

"The U.S. Air Force is leaving a decision on the future of the next jet fighter to the incoming Trump administration, a move that comes shortly after billionaire Elon Musk called for pursuing drones over piloted combat aircraft.

The Air Force is still building F-35 stealth jet fighters, a program whose total costs are expected to exceed $2 trillion over several decades. At the same time, the service is pushing forward with a combat drone system, as well as a next-generation crewed fighter.

Last Thursday, the Air Force said it would delay a decision, originally set for year-end, on which company would build the new jet fighter, meaning it will fall to the new administration to decide whether and how to go forward with a crewed aircraft.

Musk, who has long advocated for drones, took aim at manned jet fighters generally and Lockheed Martin's F-35 in particular in a post last month on X, writing that "manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones." In another post, he claimed "a reusable drone" can do everything a jet fighter can do "without all the overhead of a pilot."

Other Trump allies followed suit. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who withdrew as Trump's nominee to be attorney general amid allegations of sexual misconduct, responded to Musk's post calling the F-35 a "failed platform."

"We should move away immediately toward drones," added Gaetz, who also is brother-in-law to the head of defense-tech company Anduril Industries, Palmer Luckey.

Musk's comments aren't surprising given his stewardship of Tesla, a pioneer of self-driving car technology, and SpaceX, which builds autonomous space vehicles. But his renewed push to kill piloted planes like the F-35 has taken on new significance in light of his influence with the incoming president.

The Air Force has long resisted efforts to move away completely from piloted aircraft. Asked about Musk's recent comments, a senior Air Force officer who oversees flight testing, including of the F-35, said that moving fully to drones is impossible for the foreseeable future.

"There may be some day when we can completely rely on roboticized warfare but we are a century away," Brig. Gen. Doug Wickert said Wednesday at Edwards Air Force Base. "How long have we thought full self-driving was going to be on the Tesla?"

Musk didn't respond to request for comment.

Wickert said he has flown planes with AI capabilities to augment the pilot's role, "and it is mind-boggling how good it is." But these are incremental changes, he said, not Musk's approach, which he describes as, "We want Rome built in seven days."

A decision on whether and how the Air Force moves forward with a piloted jet fighter could determine a contract worth potentially billions of dollars. It has major implications for traditional defense contractors like Lockheed Martin as well as Silicon Valley startups eager to break into the military market. It also raises questions about the influence of tech leaders, like Musk, whose company stands to benefit from shifts in military spending.

Musk spent more than $200 million to help Trump clinch a second term, and since the election has served as an unofficial adviser to the president-elect. Musk is also expected to co-chair Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency alongside former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, another drone advocate.

"If you want to make real improvements to the defense and security of the United States of America, we would be investing more in drones, we'd be investing more in hypersonic missiles," Ramaswamy said Wednesday at the Aspen Security Forum in Washington, singling out jet fighters as weapons that may be obsolete.

Since 2021, venture capitalists have invested more than $130 billion in startups building new technology for the military -- a large portion going to autonomous drones and the software that powers them. In the past month or two, there has been a surge of startup founders building AI systems for the Defense Department and seeking venture capital to fund their product, investors said, fueled in part by the rhetoric that autonomous aircraft could become a staple in the Pentagon.

These startups are competing with costly jet fighters, built by prime defense contractors like Lockheed, for Pentagon dollars.

With the F-35 already well into production, Musk and his Silicon Valley associates may set their sights on an easier target: the Air Force's idea for a new jet fighter called Next Generation Air Dominance. The aircraft is planned to replace the stealthy F-22 -- another Lockheed aircraft -- and fly alongside the F-35.

Meanwhile, the Air Force is also pushing forward with a new drone program called Collaborative Combat Aircraft to build roughly 1,000 unmanned aircraft to fly alongside manned jet fighters like the F-35 and NGAD. Anduril and General Atomics are currently building prototypes for the program.

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SpaceX Stands to Benefit

SpaceX stands to gain potentially millions of dollars from an expansion of its Starshield constellation, a militarized version of its Starlink internet satellites that is designed to support, among other things, drone communications. Elon Musk also has close ties to defense-tech startups including Anduril, which is building the very autonomous drones he is publicly pushing to replace jet fighters.

Meanwhile, the F-35 program is still plagued with delays, cost overruns and design and software challenges more than 20 years after Lockheed Martin was picked to develop the plane. But the program would be difficult, if not impossible, to cancel given international orders and partnerships, and support from lawmakers whose districts benefit." [1]

1. U.S. News: Musk Pushes Drones Over Jet Fighters --- Trump's team will have to decide on what the future is for piloted aircraft. Seligman, Lara; Somerville, Heather; Lubold, Gordon.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 09 Dec 2024: A.3.