IAF chief asserts manned aircraft remain essential despite Elon Musk’s drone-focused warfare claims.
New Delhi: Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal AP Singh on Friday said manned aircraft will continue to be vital, responding to Elon Musk's tweet that "Drones are the future of warfare, Manned aircraft are not."
"At the moment, there are three or four major programs which are going on in the world, which they are calling the Sixth Gen Aircraft Program, NGAD, other different names. Now, all of them are manned. The importance of man, as of now, as I can see in the foreseeable future, is not going to fade away," he said.
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Collaboration between manned and unmanned systems
"There will be unmanned systems. But those unmanned systems have to work in collaboration with the manned system or have to be controlled by a man. So the relevance of fighters will remain in the years to come," Air Chief Marshal Singh added.
On Elon Musk's perspective
"Elon Musk is a businessman. He will talk about it like that because he himself is running a business. His cars, now you see how many of them are there on the road. I'm talking about just a simple car. When it comes to war fighting, I don't think we can just say that the next generation will see only unmanned by the end of their tenure. It will not happen like that. So manned platforms will remain," he said.
Published: 03 Oct 2025, 03:59 pm IST
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