{"id":56124,"date":"2020-03-04T20:17:42","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T20:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/03\/04\/f-35-program-head-pushes-back-on-elon-musk-critique-of-the-joint-strike-fighter\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:08:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:08:26","slug":"f-35-program-head-pushes-back-on-elon-musk-critique-of-the-joint-strike-fighter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2020\/03\/04\/f-35-program-head-pushes-back-on-elon-musk-critique-of-the-joint-strike-fighter\/","title":{"rendered":"F-35 program head pushes back on Elon Musk\u2019s critique of the Joint Strike Fighter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Days after billionaire SpaceX founder Elon Musk shocked the defense community by criticizing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter<\/a>, the Pentagon\u2019s head of the F-35 program countered that the jet will be relevant for decades to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI guess I\u2019m not all that interested in engaging in a battle of words with Elon Musk<\/a>. I don\u2019t necessarily share his opinion,\u201d Lt. Gen. Eric Fick told attendees at McAleese & Associates\u2019 Defense Programs Conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the F-35 is a remarkable capability and will continue to be a remarkable capability with the initiatives and the process, procedure and transformation that we see within the program<\/a>. I\u2019m happy to see what comes next, be it manned or unmanned, but I think the F-35 is going to be here for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk made national news after he shared a couple of provocative opinions<\/a> at an Air Force Association conference on Feb. 28. During a discussion on the future of air warfare, Musk mused that \u201cthe fighter jet era has passed\u201d and that it was only a matter of time before the Air Force pivoted toward autonomous combat drones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unprompted, Musk also shared his opinion on the F-35, built by Lockheed Martin, saying its past problems with cost and schedule performance could have been avoided if the Defense Department had retained a fifth-generation competitor to the jet instead of downselecting to a single vendor in 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere should be a competitor to [the Joint Strike Fighter],\u201d he said at the conference, adding that he knew that was a controversial opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He later upped the ante, tweeting that \u201cthe competitor should be a drone fighter plane that\u2019s remote controlled by a human, but with its maneuvers augmented by autonomy. The F-35 would have no chance against it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked about Musk\u2019s comments on Wednesday, Gen. Mike Holmes, head of Air Combat Command, said that the defense community may have misinterpreted Musk\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure Elon really meant that we should park them all today,\u201d he said, referring to fighter jets more broadly. \u201cI think he meant we should start thinking about what comes next, because something is coming next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Air Force may some day shift almost entirely to a combat aircraft inventory made of drones, existing artificial intelligence technology is not mature enough to deal with unknown information as well as a human fighter pilot, Holmes said. \u201cFor a long time, we\u2019re still going to need manned aircraft [for] the fighter and bomber side,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, he acknowledged that the Air Force should explore unmanned technologies, saying that \u201cwe will increasingly be experimenting with other options.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Air Force looks to replace its aging fighter inventory, it has multiple \u201con ramps\u201d where it can start retiring legacy fighters like the F-15 and F-16, and swap them with new F-35s or other jets, Holmes said. For example, the service will buy F-35s and F-15EXs to replace the F-15C\/D. The next decision point will be whether to replace Block 30 and older F-16s with the F-35A or other nascent capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to work to do the experimentation to answer that question,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cWill I still want to replace them all with F-35s, or will I start cutting in something else like Elon talked about or what [Air Force acquisition executive] Will Roper and I are discussing?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Holmes did not elaborate on those options, they include developmental programs like Skyborg<\/a> \u2014 an AI-equipped XQ-58 Valkyrie that the Air Force hopes to develop as a \u201cloyal wingman\u201d to augment manned fighters \u2014 or Digital Century Series aircraft<\/a> that could be developed within years using mature technologies and new advances in digital engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\t