{"id":68963,"date":"2024-12-19T23:45:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T23:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2024\/12\/19\/air-force-secretary-elon-musk-not-a-warfighter-needs-to-learn-more\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:18:07","slug":"air-force-secretary-elon-musk-not-a-warfighter-needs-to-learn-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2024\/12\/19\/air-force-secretary-elon-musk-not-a-warfighter-needs-to-learn-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force secretary: Elon Musk \u2018not a warfighter,\u2019 needs to learn more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Outgoing Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall on Thursday downplayed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/breaking-news\/2024\/12\/05\/air-force-defers-ngad-decision-to-trump-administration\/\" target=\"_blank\">Elon Musk\u2019s recent pronouncements that crewed fighters are obsolete<\/a> in the era of drones, and suggested the billionaire industrialist learn more about the military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI have a lot of respect for Elon Musk as an engineer,\u201d Kendall said during a webcast with the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. \u201cHe\u2019s not a warfighter, and he needs to learn a little bit more about the business, I think, before he makes such grand announcements as he did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In November, Musk wrote that \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1861070432377737269\" target=\"_blank\">manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones<\/a>\u201d and called those building jets like the F-35 \u201cidiots\u201d in a series of posts on his social media platform X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SpaceX founder and billionaire Musk allied himself with President-elect Donald Trump this year, and has become a key confidant to the incoming president with growing influence. Trump named Musk, along with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, to run a task force dubbed Department of Government Efficiency to examine ways to slash federal spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Musk made multiple scathing posts Wednesday about a proposed continuing resolution bill funding the government for three months that Congress was set to vote on, and his stance was soon echoed by Trump. This prompted Republican lawmakers to reject the CR, throwing the funding process into uncertainty and raising the specter of a government shutdown over Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Musk\u2019s dig at crewed fighter jets isn\u2019t the first time he\u2019s ruffled Air Force feathers over the topic. In 2020, he appeared at an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/air-warfare-symposium\/2020\/02\/28\/spacex-founder-tells-the-air-force-the-era-of-fighter-jets-is-ending\/\" target=\"_blank\">Air Force Association conference<\/a> and declared, \u201cThe fighter jet era has passed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But while Musk\u2019s star may be rising in the new Trump administration, Kendall said Musk\u2019s idea of a drone Air Force that can take the place of the current crewed fleet is still years away from having the necessary technology to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s provocative, it\u2019s interesting,\u201d Kendall said. \u201cI can imagine at some point \u2014 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s centuries, by the way, I think it\u2019s more like decades when something like he imagines can occur. But we\u2019re not there, and it\u2019s going to be a little while before we get there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force is rapidly moving toward adopting autonomous drone wingmen known as collaborative combat aircraft, or CCAs, which would pair with F-35A fighters and, possibly, the service\u2019s future <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/breaking-news\/2024\/12\/05\/air-force-defers-ngad-decision-to-trump-administration\/\" target=\"_blank\">Next Generation Air Dominance fighter<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kendall said CCAs show the growing importance uncrewed platforms are playing in the Air Force\u2019s arsenal but that crewed fighters can\u2019t be abandoned yet. When the Air Force flies CCAs into battle, he said, it will be important to have a human battle manager nearby to control them as a unit, with a highly secure communications feed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pilots in simulators are already starting to learn how to manage large numbers of CCAs while continuing to operate their own jet, Kendall said \u2014 and are enthusiastic about the new possibilities and new ways to safely accomplish their missions CCAs will provide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy vision \u2026 is that our operators are going to embrace this, they\u2019re going to move it forward and they\u2019re going to deploy it in a cost-effective way,\u201d Kendall said. \u201cI was a little unsure as to how our operators would react to this, but when I asked them the question, \u2018How do you feel about this,\u2019 they say, \u2018Sir, these are going to keep us alive.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kendall said the military should continue to buy the F-35, which he called a \u201cstate-of-the-art system that\u2019s continuously being upgraded,\u201d and in high demand from allied militaries around the world. The Air Force plans to buy 1,763 F-35s, but Kendall said the final number could change depending on how well CCAs and NGAD work out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The outgoing Air Force secretary threw shade at Musk after the key Trump adviser blasted crewed fighter 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