With these issues in mind, it would seem that in the most critical of situations, the best aircraft for recovering a stealth aircraft pilot is another stealth aircraft. As we all well know the Pentagon has the technology, and the high-end CSAR mission seems like a key niche that requires it, a solution I have laid out in detail before. As of now there are no known plans to provide the CSAR community with a low observable design for the toughest of CSAR missions. This means either the Air Force is willing to accept much higher risk for future CSAR missions or that they simply won't be able to attempt to rescue pilots in certain contested environments at all.

Then again the USAF could just avoid much of the this CSAR conundrum by fielding advanced unmanned combat air vehicles for the highest risk, "day one" missions like deep strike and destruction of enemy air defenses. Sadly, for one reason or another that isn't happening.

It is somewhat alarming that the USAF is buying throngs of expensive stealth aircraft that are meant to penetrate deep into highly defended enemy airspace and survive but they don't seem to be investing in CSAR capabilities to match. This has also been a concern of on Capitol Hill, one that doesn't seem to have been quenched by the purchase of the HH-60W.

We'll have to see how this all pans out. Hopefully future pilot recovery missions will be able to be as successful as the response to the downing of Vega 31 nearly twenty years ago. But tactics can only go so far and it will likely take significantly more investment by the USAF to make that a real possibility, especially when it comes to facing the challenges that future combat environments represent.

Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com