The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is no stranger to criticism, with some U.S. lawmakers and government watchdogs questioning its costs, while others have suggested that too much emphasis has been placed on a single aircraft.
On Sunday, the fifth-generation stealth fighter was in the crosshairs again. Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk fired off a series of posts on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, where he took aim at the aircraft's capabilities compared to unmanned aerial systems.
It began when Musk shared a video of Chinese drones, with the caption, "Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35."
Musk may not have anticipated the response that was to come.
Aviation buffs quickly offered rebuttals highlighting the aircraft's capabilities and noted that China has gone to great lengths to copy the capabilities of the F-35, while Israel employed its variant—the F-35I Adir—to strike Iranian military bases, where it took out Russian-made air defense systems.
"Elon Musk has shown again that he is in it for himself and no one else," said technology industry analyst Roger Entner of Recon Analytics.
"Musk wants to do AI, but hasn't accepted that we're not quite there yet," Entner added. "The future will be AI-controlled UAVs, but there are so many issues today, notably latency while all the current drones are subsonic and are relatively simple missile platforms."
Attack Of The Drones
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has shown that drones can be effective anti-tank weapons, and it has shown that drones can be effective in targeting civilian infrastructure as well as in striking warships and other assets. So Musk may be right that drones are the future, but we aren't there yet.
"The F-35, along with the F-22 Raptor, is also a cut above what Russia and China has," said Entner. "A modern UAV wouldn't have a chance against a MiG-21 from 40 years ago, and certainly not against any modern platforms.
"Unmanned combat drones are going to be the future in 20 years, but as Donald Rumsfeld said, 'you fight with the army you have, not the army you want to have."
The Fifth-Generation Fighter
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is currently produced in three variants and is operated by the United States Air Force, the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps, while it has also been adopted by U.S. allies and partner nations around the world.
"The F-35 Fighter is the best warplane on Earth today—period, end of discussion," said Harry Kazianis, senior director at the Center for the National Interest. "However, while today drones can't replace the firepower and once-in-a-generation technology the F-35 provides, the Air Force and Lockheed need to think carefully about how drones will shape the wars of the future."
The U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy are now partnering on the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, which seeks to develop unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) that would act as a "loyal wingman" for manned fighters.
"The F-35 is a server in the sky, and it would have no problem controlling multiple drones. It is a beast, an awesome warplane that is very powerful and can interface with other aircraft," said Entner.
"The Lightning II will end up being at some point less of a fighter and more of a 'general in the sky'. If you were to marry the digestive data skills of the F-35 and the ability to coordinate longer and more lethal drones that could appear in the next 10 years—that would be a powerful combination," Kazianis continued. "And, to a large extent, the Air Force seems to be thinking along those lines."
Maybe Musk didn't the memo.