&gt; Russia and China haven&#x27;t stood still over the past 15 years while we&#x27;ve been otherwise engaged. What we&#x27;ve done with drones has been excellent, but you&#x27;re not going to be loitering for hours over enemy airspace in a &quot;modern war&quot; against even a close peer adversary.<p>The Su-25 is actually deploy as part of Russian Army regiments for that exact purpose.  If you&#x27;re not familiar with the Su-25, it is the Russian analog to the A-10 Warthog.  Both aircraft fulfill the Close Air Support (CAS) role for ground troops and are designed to loiter in enemy airspace for hours.  The Su-25 was used in Chechnya, Georgia, Northern Iraq, and Syria to provide CAS to group troops.<p>CAS is inherently dangerous to pilots as is evident by the fact that both the Su-25 and the A-10 have titanium bathtubs that the pilots sit in to protect them.  The United States has been successful in using Drones in the CAS role in order to save lives.  The cost of a drone is mostly irrelevant until it exceeds that of a conventional aircraft in the same role.  As long as there is at least a cost and performance parity, the drone will win out because it doesn&#x27;t put a pilot in danger.<p>So I&#x27;m not really sure what you&#x27;re saying but it seems wrong.