Yes, but it also trains the pilots and everything around them for real action in a non war environment (you cannot just shoot anywhere in civilian airspace).

And they would need to train anyway.

But for a real conflict, sure, more economical solutions are on the way.

I love how people are pointing this out thinking NATO countries aren’t currently doing a Manhattan-light on drone defense.

I think the idea is that you don't keep sending just one F16, but the problem is long before an age of drones we built up some catch me if you can bullshit where we expect smaller countries to ignore airspace violations.

Like bro... you got a GPS. Get the fuck out of here.