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F-35

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25 Nov, 2024

Musk criticises F-35 builders against drone swarms

Makes Statement0 Comments

Referencing a viral video of a large-scale, coordinated, drone swarms, Musk says:

Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35

Followed with a series of replies to X comments :

It’s a shit design…The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level, because it was required to be too many things to too many people. This made it an expensive & complex jack of all trades, master of none. Success was never in the set of possible outcomes. And manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway. Will just get pilots killed.

Crewed fighter jets are an inefficient way to extend the range of missiles or drop bombs. A reusable drone can do so without all the overhead of a human pilot. And fighter jets will be shot down very quickly if the opposing force has sophisticated SAM or drones, as shown by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Fighter jets do have the advantage of helping Air Force officers get laid. Drones are much less effective in this regard .

Some US weapons systems are good, albeit overpriced, but please, in the name of all that is holy, let us stop the worst military value for money in history that is the F-35 program!