The End of an Era: US Navy is giving up on fighter pilots & turning to drones

[Onkel Neal]

The US Navy is planning to stop using crewed fighter jets in the coming years, according to Navy secretary Ray Mabus, turning instead to uncrewed aerial vehicles and drones to perform missions at sea, on land, and in the air.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/17/84...drones-instead

The F-35C "should be, and almost certainly will be, the last manned strike fighter aircraft the Department of the Navy will ever buy or fly," Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in a speech Wednesday at the annual Sea-Air-Space Exposition outside Washington, D.C. Fighter jocks would still be needed for dogfighting, but Mabus envisions a future when strike missions will be fulfilled by unmanned aircraft.

http://www.navytimes.com/story/milit...nned/25832745/

http://gizmodo.com/us-navy-secretary...-in-1698416632

http://arstechnica.com/information-t...ff-to-history/