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Elon Musk Questions Fighter Jet Costs

Debate sparks over the future of traditional fighter jets and rising defense expenses

Elon Musk Questions Fighter Jet Costs
Elon Musk Questions Fighter Jet Costs
Given the growing usage of drones and their versatility, there is a lot of discussion in the military establishment and arms business circles on the future of conventional fighter aircraft. Elon Musk brought out the expensive expense of producing the F-35 jet, which exacerbated the controversy.

In a report published by the Financial Times, author Sylvia Pfeiffer stated that Elon Musk, who was appointed by US President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Department of Government Efficiency with the goal of removing unnecessary federal government resources, has recently turned his attention to one particular target: the Pentagon's pricey fleet of F-35 fighter jets.

Mask sparks controversy

Musk, a vocal advocate of autonomous technology, has been mocking Lockheed Martin’s plane in social media posts over the past few weeks, the writer said. His comments have added fuel to a raging debate in defense industry circles and their customers about the feasibility of relying on expensive manned fighter aircraft, given the enormous budget pressures and the destructive capabilities that drones have demonstrated in Ukraine and elsewhere.

“In the same way that mainframes have been replaced by PCs and smartphones, we wonder if these large manned platforms will still be relevant now that we have other unmanned systems that don’t damage them,” said Lorenz Meyer, CEO of Uterion, a US-based company that is developing software to enable drone swarms to communicate with each other.

The writer noted that the US Air Force announced earlier this month that it would postpone a decision on which company would build the new fighter jet as part of the Next Generation Air Dominance program, which was scheduled to be announced later this year, meaning that the decision on whether to move forward with the project and how to implement it will be up to the incoming Trump administration.

Lockheed Martin said it would work with "the incoming administration, just as we did during President Trump's first term."

Expensive programs

The author noted that this debate in itself is not new, but the current developments could have significant implications for the US military’s traditional contractors, such as Lockheed Martin, as well as for technology startups and drone developers keen to expand into the military industry market. It coincides with costly plans being considered by Western governments for the next generation of fighter jets that are expected to replace current models.

The writer explained that all of these Western plans and programs - especially the Global Air Combat Program between the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan, and the Future Air Combat System project between France, Germany and Spain - were designed before the Ukrainian conflict led to the unprecedented development of drones.

Both programs are designed to have fighter jets perform their combat missions while surrounded by swarms of drones.

Justin Bronk, a researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, confirms that the nature of the centralized fighter aircraft is still under discussion within the next generation programs, adding that the launch of these programs at a later time will coincide with further developments expected in the autonomous aircraft industry.

According to the writer, the Global Combat Air Program, led by Britain's BAE Systems, Italy's Leonardo, and Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, is the most ambitious in terms of timeline, with manufacturers pledging to have the new fighter jet in service by 2035, but most experts believe it will ultimately be a test version.

The Franco-German-Spanish programme aims to complete the project in 2040, which could give its industrial partners Airbus and Dassault Aviation more time to consider progress in autonomous technology before making a final decision.

Michael Schollhorn, head of Airbus Defence and Space, acknowledged that given the length of time and current geopolitical tensions, it makes sense to accelerate the development of the programme's autonomous systems in the short term.