It depends where those people are expecting to fight. Small drones have proven effective for defensive, attritional warfare on geographically constrained battlefields. But the US military is pivoting to fight China in an island hopping campaign in the western Pacific Ocean, where ranges are orders of magnitude longer and a little battery powered drone can't get anywhere. There it looks like super-expensive fighters will be the only way to accomplish the mission.
Yes - I’m just not sure _Europe_ is thinking that way. If your goal is deterring Russia and being able to handle other territorial defense roles, you aren't giving that the same weight.
The pacific theater is also complicated by the high support requirements and limited airfields, which China must have plans to attack early in any war. Again, if you’re primarily focused on defending Europe you have a much easier version of that problem because it’s your territory and most of it is land, not ocean.
> where ranges are orders of magnitude longer and a little battery powered drone can't get anywhere.
Why would that be? For one, they could be launched in swarms from shipping containers aboard many dispersed vessels.
If those vessels would be too suspicious and/or vulnerable at the time, they could still be launched from submarines, maybe themselves robotic, cheaper to manufacture. Or from something like a cruise missile, like a swarm of dandelions, from a swarm of cruise missiles, or whatever larger (disposable) drone-launching platform may emerge.
https://www.twz.com/air/next-generation-fighter-critical-to-...