Air mines: countering the drone threat to aircraft

Moore's Law states that the processing power of electronic devices doubles every 18 months. This doubling has improved the capability of friendly military systems and those of their adversaries. Extrapolating this trend and other expected technological advancements suggests that by 2025 the currently widely proliferated "quadcopter" drones and their successors will have the capability to fly autonomously and be capable of complex formation maneuvers. These advances may happen soon since drones are already making strides in these areas. Additionally, drones will likely be produced with additive manufacturing printing machines at a low cost and may soon have weapons. The Juvat flight of two manned F-16Vs and two drone wingmen "headhunters" take the runway for its close air support mission against the hostile Kim Jong Deux regime. Crew members arm their directed energy (DE) systems that will -- with pilot consent -- shoot swarm drones using their active electronically scanned array with integrated infrared search and track detect systems.