[ryan71]

In the future, I see a network of very small jet powered drones, each armed with 1 or 2 internal weapons, each with IR sensors and an AESA radar, each stealthy and able to loiter on station for many hours. They don't need to dogfight and they don't need mach 3 speed. They need to be properly positioned against the threat. They would essentially be weapons/sensor platforms, hard to detect, hard to fully eliminate and hard to avoid. And cheap.

Maybe the new Avenger but smaller?

[GonzoGOP]

They don't need to dogfight and they don't need mach 3 speed. They need to be properly positioned against the threat.

The problem is that drones don't think creatively. And human controllers on long routine patrols tend to get sloppy. Any patrol line can be penetrated by a skilled enemy if the other guy can get a good look at it. Especially if the other guy has drones too. They make way better distractions than they do guards.

In land terms think of it as posting two hundred rent a cops around some key facility. Then let a six man SEAL team study their security setup for a day or two. Any bets on the survival chances of such a facility.

Drones at their current or immediate future level of technology will serve the same purpose as landmines and barbed wire do in land combat. It isn't that they do most of the damage, it is that they channelize the attack into the killers who are waiting in ambush. You don't need as may killers, but you will still need a few, real good ones.