Elon Musk calls fighter jets ‘obsolete’, drones the future of air combat
Trump ally Musk shared a video of Chinese drones on X, and said F-35’s makers are ‘idiots’ for still building manned jets
Billionaire Elon Musk, tapped by US President-elect Donald Trump to slash federal government spending, lashed out at modern fighter jets on Monday, saying that drones were the future of air combat.
“Manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway. Will just get pilots killed,” said the head of SpaceX, Tesla and X, in a post on his social media platform.
Musk singled out the F-35 – a next-generation fighter jet manufactured by US-based Lockheed Martin that entered service in 2015 – for criticism.
“Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35,” he posted, alongside a video of hundreds of Chinese drones hovering in formation in the sky.
The F-35, the world’s most advanced fighter, is stealth capable and can also be used to gather intelligence.
Germany, Poland, Finland and Romania have all recently signed deals for the aircraft.
