'UAV era' reigns, billionaire Elon Musk criticizes F-35 fighter jet as expensive

Washington [US], November 26: Billionaire Elon Musk calls those who want to build F-35 fighter jets 'idiots' in the context of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) dominating.
In a post on social network X on November 25, Mr. Elon Musk bluntly criticized the F-35 design for having problems when it needed too many people to create many things, causing this fighter to eventually turn into a complex and expensive product but not specializing in any strength. He said that manned fighter planes are obsolete in the era of strong development of UAVs, reported the New York Post .
The day before, the Tesla and SpaceX chief had posted videos of UAVs flying in formation, or combining UAVs to create unique nighttime images. "Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned planes like the F-35," Musk wrote in the caption.
The F-35 is America's fifth-generation stealth fighter . It can be equipped with multiple weapons for multi-mission purposes, is exported to many countries, and has variants for each branch of the US military. However, some critics have criticized the high cost and frequent delays of the F-35 project.
Musk's comments sparked a debate on social media. Some argued that UAVs would not be able to match the capabilities of traditional fighters , such as range, speed, and weapons payload, while others said that UAVs were never designed to compete with fighters, but rather to use their low cost to outnumber and attack ground targets.
A Pentagon spokesman told the New York Post that the US military has fighter jets that are performing extremely well against threats. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin , the manufacturer of the F-35, said their fighters are the most advanced and survivable in the world .
Billionaire Elon Musk has launched a criticism of the US's fifth-generation stealth fighter as he will head a new agency called the Committee on Government Efficiency (DOGE) under President-elect Donald Trump 's second term . Musk is expected to advise the White House on major cuts to the federal budget. It is unclear whether the F-35 program will be affected.
According to Bloomberg in September, the F-35 project has been increased by 10% to 485 billion USD to improve the overheating situation. This is also one of the most expensive weapons projects of the US. To date, about 1,000 F-35s have been supplied to the military and sold to allied countries.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper