That's really a superficial issue here, because once the program budget has grown to fighter jet levels the asymmetric cost discussion is over and all that's left is taking a potentially culpable human being out of the equation, and the likely more influential aspect of military purchasers wanting to be impressed by vendors just like any other purchasers anywhere else.
Drones don't need to be anywhere near the size of fighter jets to carry the same payload. But meanwhile a single fighter jet is going to do nothing against a swarm of 100 drones that are 1/10th the size and 1/100th the cost since there's no need to train a pilot for 10 years and they can forego many safety systems designed for human pilots.
Then there's a whole range of medium to low speed drones which again just overwhelm an infantry force. Or attach C4 and fly them kamikaze into ships. How do you guarantee you can shoot down 1000 drones in time when only one of them needs to succeed to do massive damage.
Very well indeed I think. AFAIK Dragonfire is fully within the optical
spectrum. However, there's a similar project we've been working on
over here that's a beamforming MASER - that travels right through the
housing and fries the electronics.
A fifth generation fighter jet can bomb the factory that makes them, the truck that carries them, jam their coms, and land in a parking lot to rearm, refuel and do it all again.
