I simply cannot understand why we can’t commit to purchasing a large number of these planes over a long period. Yes, I know, there’s a Constitutional limit on the committment of funds - but there are other ways of doing this, like a committment by the leaders of both parties to do this NO MATTER WHAT.
Such a committment would enable the cost per plane to be reduced considerably. It would also make our enemies sit up and take notice that we’re not going to be pushed around, not now or for the foreseeable future. Later (like 5-10 years down the line), we could export somewhat stripped-down and less than state-of-the-art F-22s to closely allied nations like the UK, Canada, Australia, Israel, etc. This would enable us to further offset the fixed costs of R&D and production, while still maintaining a substantial technological lead over everybody else (enemies and allies alike). The sale of a couple hundred F-22s to allied nations will further discourage enemies from screwing around with us or our allies.
Obviously, there is a concern about F-22 tech getting in the hands of China, Russia, etc if it’s sold to Japan, the UK, Australia. But it may eventually anyway, and if the US does all it’s production first, and is working on the next gen at the same time, by the time our allies get to buy, it’s probably too late for an enemy to get too much of an advantage, because it takes years to integrate the tech they mught steal into their own designs. Plus, the bottom line is that we need a higher production run to be able to afford the number that we need.