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Except a country with shitload of drones will send 100 of them for a cost of 1 F35 from field runways no satellite can find, and bomb your airstrips.

Even if you react in time, and shoot down a dozen, result doesn't change.



Current F-35A unit cost is $78M. Which model of drone costs $780K and has the same range?

In reality cruise missiles will be used for most strikes against fixed targets like runways. Even those cost like $2M each.


> Which model of drone costs $780K and has the same range?

None, but you don't need range if you will creep within few hundred kms of the target, and launch from field.


Well we already have that. Manned aircraft have been used to deliver cruise missiles for decades. Cruise missiles are drones by another name.


It's not quite the same. Calling a cruise missile an unmanned bomber does not match the effect.

A cruise missile gives you one big bang, enough to ruin a runway. Drones on the other end can keep buzzing in the sky for hours, and destroying whomever still tries to take off, or repair the runway.




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