Do we still need jet trainers, let alone clean-sheet ones? There is plenty of evidence suggesting that future military air power will focus on unmanned systems, begging the question whether there is a future for fast-jet flight training. Looking at the bigger picture, however, the operating costs of unmanned vehicles is set to increase significantly if used in contested airspace which, together with the increasing challenge of finding sufficient pilot resource and the mounting political nervousness around unmanned warfare, means that we are some decades away from U(C)AVs overtaking the world's 20,000 or so strong fleet of fast-jet defence capability.
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