“We are not going to wage war only with robots”, believes General Jean-Patrick Gaviard

Combat planes with a pilot overwhelmed by drones? The boss of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk, targeted his X platform “fighter planes with pilots” Who “are obsolete in the age of drones”. The billionaire, at the head of a commission to cut spending by the American federal government, specifically attacked the F-35, the United States Air Force plane since it entered service in 2015. . “Meanwhile, you have idiots still building manned fighter jets like the F-35.”he said.

“Fighter planes are becoming more and more expensive with complicated maintenance”recognizes General Jean-Patrick Gaviard, former commander of air defense and air operations. But according to him, drones will not replace manned combat aircraft but rather accompany them.

franceinfo: Is Elon Musk's proposal to replace combat planes with drones possible?

Jean-Patrick Gaviard : I think not. What is clear for the French armies and even for the Western armies is that the successors of combat aircraft today result in visions known as a “system of systems”. That is to say, the fighter plane is in the middle of a system which is composed of fighter planes, reconnaissance planes, listening planes and drones.

So manned fighter jets are not “obsolete”, as Elon Musk claims?

No, there is indeed a priority given to piloted aircraft which control swarms of drones. The Americans and the English are working on it in particular. For the replacement of the Rafale in the 2040s, the program that is underway is called the Future combat air system (Fcas). Designers are working on a “system of systems” in which the piloted fighter jet would be at the heart with swarms of drones around it.

“Drones must allow the pilot to have better knowledge of the opposing side, and to be able to carry out missions for the benefit of this piloted aircraft. But in the end, it is the pilot who will be able to make the decisions or not. “

Jean-Patrick Gaviard, former commander of air defense and air operations

at franceinfo

Why Elon Musk is “targeting” manned fighter jets ?

If Elon Musk says that, I think that behind it is because he is at the heart of what we call AI, that is to say artificial intelligence, or rather – I prefer this term – augmented intelligence. For him, this AI can surpass humans. There is an interest, because it is far ahead of AI. For him, talking about drones opens up a whole market. But I think that the American manufacturers of combat aircraft will react and will not let the drones overtake them. American and European manufacturers will not play this card because Western air forces are already in “systems of systems”.

Is he right when he explains that the F-35 has a “complex and expensive” design?

The F-35 is very expensive, it's true. Combat aircraft are becoming more and more expensive with complicated maintenance. These aircraft have increasingly complicated specifications because the ground-air systems are also becoming more and more efficient. This is what we call denial of access, which means that it is very complicated to go to a place that is heavily defended by surface-to-air missiles. We see this today in Ukraine. It is therefore necessary to have an aircraft that is very efficient for aerial combat and delivering weapons but also capable of evading ground-to-air defenses. For this to be the case, they must be stealthy while remaining maneuverable, this is rarely the case for stealth aircraft. It becomes very complicated things to design. Drones are perhaps more easily “usable”, because indeed a pilot who falls into enemy lines can have very serious consequences politically and humanly, but we are not going to wage war only with drones.

Why is using only drones unethical?

Western democracies want to be ethically correct and explain that they respect the law of armed conflict. So if you only fight with drones against a population, you are not in the vision of Western democracies. Artificial intelligence must serve humans and not the other way around.

“The AI ​​can propose solutions to the pilot, but it is ultimately the man who will decide. In my opinion, the AI ​​and the man complement each other well to be able to find the best solution operationally when we are in a conflict .”

Jean-Patrick Gaviard, former commander of air defense and air operations

at franceinfo

Drones clearly have an interest but not completely today. For the Rafale which will be available in 2030, the F5 standard, there is already this concept of a drone which will accompany the plane in combat. So gradually, we are moving towards this solution of the drone-Rafale couple and not the drone-drone couple.