The US spends more on its military that the next nine nations combined. Both its aircraft carrier and F-35 programs have gone way over budget - while America continues to innovate its next-generation weapons for the battlefields of Ukraine. Honestly, all the improvements make so much sense by themselves, but I can see how combining a dozen new technologies into a single object and durability testing them for 50+ years might have caused more delays and headaches than desired. Thanks for the investigative journalism! What seems to be a large problem for the US’ military hegemony might be partly due to the lack of competitiveness of the arms industry. Just a few different companies seem to control the entire industry and get government contracts. Lowering innovativeness and driving costs up. A.I. systems would be great for giving a drone pilot more information so that they can avoid deadly mistakes, but in the end, humans should always be kept in the decision-making loop. A hybrid between the two, if you will. That whole situation is pretty complicated though.