27 December 2024

President-Elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the Department of Government Efficiency is no military expert—and he evaded South Africa's mandatory service in that country's armed forces—but Elon Musk nonetheless sees the future of airborne combat.

It's not about fighter pilots and manned jets.

Yesterday, Musk posted on X: "America needs a large quantity of long-range drones (air, surface water & submarine) and hypersonic missiles. Anything manned will die very fast in a drone war." 

The recent post follows similar thoughts he shared on the site last month: "Future wars are all about drones & hypersonic missiles. Fighter jets piloted by humans will be destroyed very quickly."

Musk is also no fan of the F-35 fighter, which he calls a "sh*t design."

"The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level, because it was required to be too many things to too many people," Musk stated in a November post. "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." 

How Bad IS the F-35 Fighter?

Whatever one's opinion on the F-35 and other manned combat jets, Musk—along with likely tons of The Droning Company community—sees that drones offer mission-critical advantages without significant risk to pilots, and that the future of warfare will most probably be written by drones. We already have incrediblle data from actual war zones and military think tanks regarding the success rates of combat drones. 

So, while we can probably thank Musk for stating the obvious, warfare is a tricky business and combat advancements typically take years—and staggering expense—before they are proven and battlefield ready. 

What are your views on drone combat? Feel free to share them with us at mmolenda@thedroningcompany.com.