Quote Originally Posted by carl View Post
I was thinking of a show of force short of war. Contrails left by an airplane that can smash you can be pretty effective at that. We don't have any drones that can do that.

Again in a situation short of war, something you can see may be scarier than something you can't. For example, it is hard to do gunboat diplomacy with submarines, aircraft carriers are better.

And in a small war, a low fast run by a fighter in afterburner is, I've read, a good tactic to scare away bad guys. We don't have a drone that can do that either.

This is, of course, a conservative's argument; I am reluctant to give up what I know works for what might work.
What I was suggesting is that if it's contrails you want, easier to build drones that make them than to buy more multi bizillion dollar fighter planes.