Drones still occupy hangar and flight-deck space and require maintenance, so the entire air group has to be sized together. The proposed minimum mix is 24 F-35Bs, about 18 uncrewed aircraft, and 18 helicopters, with 36 F-35Bs and a total air group of 72 preferred. The helicopter pool must cover anti-submarine warfare, command and control, troop transport, and other duties. The repeated block of eighteen comes from the difficulty of keeping four aircraft airborne, another four on alert, and the remainder cycling through preparation and maintenance. Remotely based operators can rotate without landing the aircraft, reducing pilot-fatigue constraints, but the engineering workload remains.
Notable Point · 33:22-35:40
Why useful carrier drone pools must be large
Sustaining four aircraft aloft and four ready while others undergo maintenance can drive a requirement toward roughly eighteen airframes per role.