Drone a2a seem to be the near future with cheaper options just like drone a2g is getting more used. As from long ranges it is difficult for radar to precisely track stealth objects and gives away your position which is subject to very long range attacks especially if radar is on the ground.
In Paf seciton I also posted this a ramjet drone would have the speed about mach 3 , almost no moving parts in the ramjet engine making it cheaper than jet engine and can take out the target precisely getting closer to it. The ground or awacs radar wont be revealed by tracking the target with stronger signals. This one needs a nose radar, landing gear and internal bays to store aams though. Taking off can be made by jettisonable rockets to give it some altitude or ZEL launch(
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-length_launch) and initial speed for ramjet to take over.
This one does not have a rocket engine but only a ramjet engine so under its both wings two disposable rockets can be used to shoot it directly upwards like a space shuttle to give it altittude and speed necessary for ramjet to take over rest of the flight. After its mission it can glide down and land to an airfield if landing gear is installed.
en.wikipedia.org
Another ramjet missile that was used previously and converted to a drone later is Bomarc which has about 700km range with about mach 2.5 speed
en.wikipedia.org
It needs a landing gear but in this example a landing skid would be better to land on unprepared ground requiring no airfield similar to ww2 rocket engine fighters like me-163 . Since it flies at higher altitudes than jets the ramjets can be replaced above the wings and wont contribute to increase its radar cross section for ground radars and enemy aircraft. Also its tail configuration and cylinder body is a radar reflector and it needs to be refurbished to a better shape(hexagon body maybe wings - elevators at the middle of the body and V tail). Something like below as a picture is worth a thousand words.
However even without modification cim-10 bomarc with its current shape has about mach 2.8 . It can intercept other planes effectively.
Some countries started to turn old aircraft into drones possibly for a2a purpose.
dont give up sams as if the radars are protected well they can be of good use and combined with other systems like IRST tracking they can stay stealthy but there should be alternatives for emerging threats.
Su-30 is a good aircraft and its powerful radar can be used as a semi awacs role which can protect itself to a degree at least against 4th-4.5 generation aircraft. However Iran should be careful about at least producing its own software for ew , radar, even avionics-control software parts. It wont be a big surprise at all when putin gives all the codes behind to israel as there seems to be some "influence" or "connection" on him. This is most evidently true after he stayed silent for a long time after Usa assasination of Iranian general showing that he might have prior knowledge about the attack or at least he was told immediately by someone to stay out until israel-usa finishes its job with Iran.
