The military hates to let a cool idea die, the J-UCAS smart drone was supposed to be an un manned areal vehicle that could take out the enemy or jam radar systems. Pretty much it was going to be tasked with trail blazing the way for manned missions into hostile territory. Not an all together bad idea, who likes to be shot at? However, after possible budget considerations, the idea of using this platform as an upgrade to the long range bomber fleet. With China fast becoming a replacement for our cold war adversary this tool may be just the thing we need to maintain balance in the world.
As soon as you give to robots weapons, they’ll revolt…
[No kidding, not looking forward to it. -John]