mellestad:
Folks dead & buried have predicted the end of manned war aircraft for decades.
There are some cases where there is no substitute for a man and a man's brain.
Then, toss in rules of engagement that sometimes require visual ID and, sometimes, hostile action on the part of the enemy aircraft.
You end up with in-your-face dogfights like the days of old.
Vietnam is the example to use. Planes like the F-4 entered service with no guns, just guided missiles, since everything was going to be at a distance, blah blah blah, no need to get that close, etc.
Well, turns out that circumstances dictated that we get cheek-by-jowl with the N Vietnamese aircraft and we ended up losing way to many men due to the lack of guns and lack of training in close-combat.
Like others have written, UAVs will be part of hte arsenal and will thrive in certain niches, not all of which will involve shooting with missiles or observing with sensors.