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A comment on US Military Asks for Help Locating Missing F-35 Fighter Jet. Parent comment

Re:US Military Asks for Help Locating Missing F-35 Fighter Jet by XorNot on Monday September 18, 2023 @04:05PM (#37561265)
Drones operating in the fighter plane envelope are going to be basically the same plane.

Which the US is wholly aware of given the "Loyal Wingman" program, which the F-35 is designed to work with: commanding unmanned fighters/aircraft as support or missile trucks if what have you

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Re:US Military Asks for Help Locating Missing F-35 Fighter Jet by imtringued on Tuesday September 19, 2023 @07:06AM (#37568230)
This is one of the things I never understood. "Cheap drones" is a code word for Chinese made quadrocopter toys. Military drones will be fixed wing and have combustion engines. Suddenly things start getting expensive and you can no longer have a million plastic toys for the price of one F35, you'll get 3 reapers or maybe a dozen "Wingmen".

The closest analog would be converting cessnas. Half a million dollars plus drone kit = 1 million dollar bomber => 75 bombers or one F-35.

At that price point one might start thinking about sending the bombers first (to deplete air defenses), then the F-35s...

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