If you couldn't have a single platform with useful range, you could just make many platforms each carrying 100s of missiles instead. Each missile could itself have a clustered warhead. These platforms would still have superior maneuverability to jet fighters, and you could put unshielded nuclear engines on them as Russia is doing right now with their new cruise missiles
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/03/best-bad-idea-ever-w...This is something that's simply not possible to do if you have a human pilot who requires massive shielding and can only handle small Gs.
