This sounds like the old record the Air Force and Navy played back in the 50's and 60's. With the new SAGE air defense systems combined with the incredible, supersonic F-102, bombers would be shot down flawlessly without ever being seen. The Navy loved this song too and came out with the end-all, do-all F-4 with no guns and magic missiles also able to clear the skies hundreds of miles around the fleet with no one having even lain eyes on the enemy. Then came North Vietnam in a cramped airspace and Korean vintage Mig 17s that on occasion handed the US Navy its helmet on a plate. All of sudden you had to lay human eyeballs on a target, everybody needed guns, yanking and banking became very desirable, and supersonic only applied to RA-5s. All those airplanes were magnificent pieces of machinery and all were adapted to a totally unexpected and undesigned-for environment, no thanks to the crystal balls of the technologists. It all sounds great on paper for the successor of the F-35 but I am so unimpressed with our past success at predicting the future that I will go out on my uninformed limb and predict that: (1) the F-35 will make it's place in history by getting on an enemy's tail and blowing up mud buildings very expensively and (2) pilots will be in the air for as long as we have flying machines because of the computer between their ears.
Take heart, young airman.
