The Shifting Role of Human Pilots in the Future of Air Warfare
Drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have transformed modern warfare and transcended the long-range capabilities of militaries across the globe. They possess the ability to conduct surveillance, precise striking, and completely remove human operators from immediate danger. These benefits have made drones and UAVs central to modern military operations, with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities further improving their autonomy, efficiency, and decision-making skills. While new technologies emerge and UAVs grow more capable, debates about the role of human pilots have surfaced, posing questions about whether they will be phased out entirely. While UAVs have significant long-range advantages, they cannot replace the moral responsibility, real-time adaptability, and strategic judgment that human pilots bring to air combat.
While UAVs have acted as a tool to supplement conventional airpower, they will likely never replace human aviators. The future of airpower will rely on a hybrid human-machine model where drones will augment human capabilities and decision-making. Unmanned systems provide heightened endurance, precision, and risk reduction but lack performance in situational awareness, ethical reasoning, or survivability capabilities that necessitate human pilots’ expertise.
The Advantages of Unmanned Systems
Unmanned systems have offered powerful advantages to military strategy that have completely transformed modern warfare. In the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, drones have become central to intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations, enabling both sides to conduct long-range strikes, coordinate battlefield movements, and execute precise, real-time targeting. Long-range drone and missile attacks on enemy forces, energy facilities, and critical infrastructure have diminished the reliance on short-range ground missions, significantly reducing the exposure and cost to soldiers on the ground. By removing aircrew from combat zones, such as in Russia or Ukraine, militaries can carry out missions that would be otherwise too dangerous or politically sensitive for piloted aircraft. Ukraine’s “Operation Spiderweb” is a clear example of this evolution: an expansive, networked drone strategy that leveraged swarms of expendable, easily accessible UAVs to overwhelm Russian defenses. It saturated the battlespace with persistent ISR capabilities and enabled long-range strikes into occupied territories. The operation reduced single-point vulnerabilities across thousands of interconnected drones and exemplified how autonomous unmanned systems can shape battlefield tempo, complicate enemy air defenses, and impose asymmetric costs on larger, more advanced militaries
Drones excel in endurance. Where human pilots may face physical limitations or require rest, drones can remain airborne for extended periods, allowing persistent ISR. Systems like the RQ-4 Global Hawk can loiter for 30+ hours, providing an unprecedented opportunity for targets to be tracked in ways unimaginable for manned aircraft.
Drones also provide cost-efficient precision and ever-evolving capabilities. They are relatively inexpensive and readily available, making their rapid deployability invaluable. In comparison to deployment of bombers or fighters, their “dull, dirty, dangerous” status makes them ideal alternatives in combat. This holds undoubtedly true for Ukrainian military forces fighting Russia, as drones have remained an incredible weapon to counter Russian forces and gain an asymmetric edge in the conflict.
Where UAVs Fall Short
Despite their advantages, drones face significant limitations that prevent them from replacing human pilots. They are incapable of making fundamental ethical and moral judgments that are necessary in battlefield situations. Autonomous systems are unable to interpret ambiguous combat environments in a human way. Distinguishing between combatants and civilians, understanding adversary intent, and anticipating consequences require human judgments that unmanned systems cannot replace. As AI/ML become more widely embedded in unmanned platforms, additional complications of drones arise, such as eroding human confidence in autonomous decision-making and technical issues like hallucinations, latency, and system reliability. These issues necessitate human oversight in drone operations. Without such oversight, accountability, misidentification, and indiscriminate targeting concerns abound. According to the United Nations, a Kargu-2 autonomous “loitering munition” may have “hunted down and remotely engaged” human targets in Libya without any real-time human input.
UAVs also fail in dynamic, contested environments. Modern air combat requires rapid improvisation and real-time tactical adaptation, especially when confronting adversaries with advanced equipment. They rely on communications that can be jammed, degraded, or spoofed by adversaries, therefore minimizing their effectiveness. This factor is critical in a heavily contested airspace, where a signal disruption could mean mission failure. They also lack the high-speed maneuverability and survivability of manned aircraft, rendering them obsolete for air superiority missions where human, split-second reactions determine crucial outcomes.
Technical vulnerabilities further constrain UAV effectiveness. Drones are susceptible to electronic warfare (EW), cyberattacks, and sensor interference. Drones are also incapable of carrying the same payloads, speeds, or stealth required for high-intensity conflict with peer adversaries.
While UAVs remove pilots from imminent physical danger, they do not eliminate the human cost of war. Instead, these costs evolve. UAVs introduce new human factors for operators, such as stress, desensitization to violence, and cognitive overload. Limitations in unmanned systems pose a glaring truth: drones are powerful tools, but are not self-sufficient. Their weaknesses reinforce the necessity for human pilots who can navigate complexity, exercise judgment, and ensure morality.
Human Pilots are Here to Stay
Human pilots are necessary for rapid decision-making in the face of uncertainty and conflict against near-peer adversaries. Air combat is shaped by fluidity and split-second decisions, where high-pressure situations evolve instantly. Human judgment and intuition are vital for survival and mission accomplishment. Pilots blend instinct with training to interpret and anticipate threats, while adapting tactics and methods in unpredictable scenarios. Situational awareness requires a human decision-maker. Pilots can integrate sensory perceptions, environmental cues, interpersonal communications, and mission context to holistically analyze a conflict in ways that UAV sensors cannot.
The United States government (USG) has made strides to ensure that pilots will remain in the cockpit for years to come. In March 2025, the United States Air Force announced its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) platform, the F-47, which will remain a manned aircraft. This decision was costly, as the development of the F-35 cost nearly $2 trillion. The 6th-generation fighter jet will define the future of air dominance and highlight the USG’s understanding that pilots are necessary to maintain air superiority.
Pilots carry institutional knowledge that shapes operational culture. This experience cannot be learned or ingrained into an algorithm. Through extensive training, thousands of flight hours, debriefs, mission deployments, and joint exercises, experience is built that informs tactical military innovation. Human pilots possess the ability to think like adversaries, call on their experiences, and calibrate tactics to the emotional and psychological aspects of combat.
The existence of manned aircraft strengthens alliance relationships through joint jet pilot training programs. For example, when the United States sells fighter jets to partner nations, foreign pilots often train in the U.S. alongside USAF personnel, therefore fostering shared doctrine, long-term professional networks, and operational familiarity. Programs like NATO’s joint pilot training programs illustrate how interoperability among partner nations deepens military integration and reinforces collective defense commitments. By contrast, UAV sales fail to foster deepened relationships with allies, as they do not involve the same duration, training, or personal integration that manned fighter pilot training fosters. This causes fewer opportunities to build enduring interpersonal and institutional defense ties.
The Hybrid Future of Air Warfare: Human-Machine Teaming
The future of air superiority lies in human-machine teaming. Modern military programs have embraced the idea of pairing manned aircraft with autonomous systems to heighten precision strike and reconnaissance. In July 2025, the United States Air Force flew autonomous collaborative platforms alongside crewed aircraft during a training event at Eglin Air Force Base. The Air Force Research Lab states: “Pilots operating an F-16C Fighting Falcon and an F-15E Strike Eagle each controlled two XQ-58A Valkyrie aircraft in an air combat training scenario, showcasing real-time integration between manned and semi-autonomous systems.”
United States Air Force leaders see autonomous systems as a tool to maximize the best of human and machine capabilities on the battlefield, while recognizing that autonomous systems are not yet capable of performing independently in conflict situations.
Human pilots act as mission commanders in overseeing drone formations. The pilot can act as a network integrator, directing unmanned platforms, fusing information from sensors, and making critical high-level decisions, while drones can execute supporting functions. This transformation marks the evolution of modern warfare, where human operators can increasingly supervise complex systems without risking their lives. Drones can take on high-risk tasks like suicide missions, air defense penetration, and conducting EW missions that would otherwise threaten pilots’ lives. This synthesis allows for drones’ precision and expendability to be combined with humans’ judgment and adaptabilit,y which are critical in conflict scenarios. Training and doctrine will likely evolve alongside the transformation of modern warfare. The future of pilots will require not only aviation fundamentals, but also systems integration and autonomous platform management. Drones and UAVs have undoubtedly transformed modern warfare, but do not negate the enduring importance of human pilots. In an era defined by rapid technological change, the most capable air force will be the one that integrates tactical operations with advanced unmanned systems effectively. A pilot’s role will surely evolve, but their relevance will endure.
Views expressed are the author’s own and do not represent the views of GSSR, Georgetown University, the author’s employer, or any other entity. Image Credit: Reuters