Manned aircraft will always have less potential than unmanned.

And as far as AI, we are not quite there yet this minute. But give it a few years. Missiles can pull 20G maneuvers towards a target.

PD

Well of course. And the even bigger thing about it is how code is evolving for them to work better in groups.

Think about it. A long range mission from a CVN would consist of 5-6 drones with 1 of them a tanker drone that stays out of sensor range automatically. One of them can drop a multitude of scout drones to extend sensor abilities and the others can automatically attack valid targets and dodge enemy weapons fire without the mess of talking. The thought of a drone doing hard maneuvers to put cannon rounds or laser shots into a convoy or scattered troops is one I envision for these things.

So this big ole stealth bomber is gonna be a big ole drone. And it is about time!

BTW: Before you say the minidrone idea is pure fantasy. Keep in mind that we are now designing drones the size of flies. There have been jet engines no bigger than a model rocket motor. No good on endurance tho. But that is not needed when drones wont be sticking around for the enemy to move more defences in.