Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, selected by US President-elect Donald Trump to lead efforts to reduce federal government spending, made headlines Monday by criticising modern fighter jets and advocating for drones as the future of air warfare.
“Manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway. Will just get pilots killed,” Musk said on his social media platform, X, where he heads companies such as SpaceX and Tesla.
Musk reserved pointed criticism for the F-35, a state-of-the-art fighter jet produced by US defence giant Lockheed Martin.
The aircraft, which entered service in 2015, is renowned for its stealth capabilities and intelligence-gathering functions but has faced scrutiny for high costs and technical challenges.
“Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35,” Musk posted, sharing a video of drones flying in precise formation. He labelled the F-35 “an expensive (and) complex jack of all trades, master of none,” arguing that its design flaws stemmed from overly ambitious requirements.
The F-35 aircraft has been adopted by several nations, including Germany, Poland, Finland, and Romania, despite enduring criticism for its high operating costs and development challenges, particularly with its advanced software systems.
Mauro Gilli, a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, defended the aircraft’s role in modern warfare. “What makes the F-35… expensive is the software and the electronics, not the pilot per se,” Gilli said on X. He added that reusable drones would still require the same advanced electronics as the F-35, undermining Musk’s argument that removing pilots would significantly cut costs.
Gilli also pointed out the strategic impact of the F-35, arguing that its existence forces geopolitical rivals like Russia and China to invest heavily in countermeasures. “By simply existing, the F-35 and the B-1 force Russia and China into strategic choices they would not have to make otherwise (i.e., budget allocations),” Gilli explained. “Even if Musk were right (and he is not), deleting the programs would relax these constraints on them.”