Inside the New Stealth Arsenal

As military strategists look ahead, the days of asymmetric warfare and the uncontested airspace that comes with it seem to be drawing to a close. "There are no active area defenses run by insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq or, for that matter, Syria," says defense analyst Phil Finnegan, of the Fairfax, Virginia–based Teal Group. "But the next generation of UAVs will have to confront potential threats like China. They'll need to be much more capable—faster, with greater autonomy in case communication links are disrupted, and stealthier so they are more difficult for an adversary to detect."