I think we will see UAV/AAV complement manned fighters in the not too distant future already. A son of MALD might be a start.
Meaning for the air-to-air job not a real unmanned plane, but something that is small and purely air-launched and air-recovered.
And they probably will not primarily be used as effectors (a la kamikaze), but as a forward based sensor and for ISR, a rearward based line-of-sight network node, and for electronic warfare purposes (jamming, spoofing, &c).
The holy grail of course is taking them *back aboard*, the ability to re-latch to a pylon in full flight. Otherwise the whole shebang is too expensive.
That said, it might well be that such a UAV will not use a manned platform for carriage, but an unmanned donkey-RPV which launches them close to the ops area and keeps circling till they are back. And of course a very obvious launch platform are bombers and tankers (yet another secondary job for KC-X) – also for self-protection, btw.
Another – more kamikaze like mission – would be to pack a dozen or so of them onto a large missile (from ATACMS upwards) and launch them deep into enemy territory.
Wouldn’t it be simpler to give them A2A refueling capability? Images of the parasite fighter come to mind..
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