Drones seem to be a cheaper option that should not be neglected. They are also lightweight. They can even use ordinary not-hardened highways in my opinion but it should be tested. They would be less airbase dependant and can be carried arround easily if need be. Valkyrie below for example is about 2 tonnes and with an upper intake it wont have a fod problem. It seems it can takeoff-land anywhere.
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There are some disadvantages as well. But these can be improved. Jamming would be much more difficult and range extends tremendously if the drone uses satcom. In Karabagh war Russian jamming systems couldnt jam out the TB-2 most of the time eventhough TB-2 didnt have satcom and it continued its operations throughout the war. Satellites are vulnurable to asat that is true but there are other means like atmospheric-pseudo satellites like high-alt balloons. They need to enter your airspace to shoot them down within that high altitudes.
Loyal wingman is high subsonic maybe low supersonic range. Although slow it can pack a punch with wvr and bvr missiles which are fast enough. It is not dogfight era. I think the weak side of these planes currently are the engines. To increase thrust to weight ratio they either need a more powerful engine such as RD-93 used in Jf-17 or 2 smaller engines like J85 of F-5 to fit in a smaller airframe like this. It would decrease interception time and also increase max-altitudes of these systems to intercept higher flying aircraft.
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Further edit: Actually I see 2- J-85 f5 engines are used in these drones. They are testbed for target drones but even targeting them would be difficult in a2a mode. It says it can easily go supersonic. Also the tail seems to be makeshift not angled backwards like loyal wingman which has better stealth characteristics. They made it more targetable on purpose it seems.
Sierra Technical Services recently completed several ground tests, including an engine test run, on its Fifth Generation Aerial Target (5GAT) aircraft.
www.flightglobal.com
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I think next step would be removing the tail altoghether. That would reduce drag further make these easily go supersonic and much less detectable by any type of radar.
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