Elon Musk Says Drones Are the Future of War, but He Should Consider Horses
U.S. Army major Bobby Sickler explains the paradox of military technology
Bobby Sickler is a U.S. Army major currently serving as a Goodpaster Scholar with the Advanced Strategic Planning and Policy Program at the U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies. He has deployed as an Army helicopter pilot to Iraq and Afghanistan and is currently pursuing a PhD in the Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology at Arizona State University.
Earlier this year, Elon Musk told an audience at the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium that “the fighter jet era has passed.” Now, he insisted, “It’s drones.” Predictably, the response from the defense community was mixed. Opinion pieces with titles like “Elon Musk was right: The Manned Fighter Jet Era Has (Almost) Passed” and “Sorry, Elon, fighter pilots will fly and fight for a long time” provided insights into the range of arguments for and against Musk’s provocative statement. These responses tended to assume that manned fighter jets were about to become obsolete or they were not. Yet as one previous paradigm shift in military technology shows, the complexities of military technology can create a paradox where both perspectives may be equally correct — this is why it’s instructive to…
