Humans are far superior at many of the tasks that require more than just following an algorithm. And the Mark 1 may not have Steve Austin abilities, but compared to scanning terrain with a Sniper/Lantirn pod, it is unbeatable. Talk to some of the guys who fly the Predators out at Creech, and they'll gladly tell you the unclassified shortcomings.
And autonomous air to air drones still need to be able to accept instructions/commands while in route, during combat, etc. The idea that we'll simply unleash 100 drones and create a killzone isn't something that's going to fly...
The reason all the companies are building and designing drones is because that what the governments/militaries are paying for. Private industry simply can't afford to do much R&D that isn't already contracted for by the DOD etc.
Finally, drones are easy pickings for manned aircraft. For permissive environments like the 'Stans and Iraq, sure. Up against someone with a real AD network, forget about it.
And autonomous air to air drones still need to be able to accept instructions/commands while in route, during combat, etc. The idea that we'll simply unleash 100 drones and create a killzone isn't something that's going to fly...
The reason all the companies are building and designing drones is because that what the governments/militaries are paying for. Private industry simply can't afford to do much R&D that isn't already contracted for by the DOD etc.
Finally, drones are easy pickings for manned aircraft. For permissive environments like the 'Stans and Iraq, sure. Up against someone with a real AD network, forget about it.