I’d be surprised if the USAF ends up buying more than 500 F-35As.
All the F-22 bashers around here should reflect a long time on the following quote from USAF Lieutenant General Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, deputy chief of operations, plans and requirements:
Despite the cost increases and technical glitches expereinced by both F-22 and F-35 programmed, the USAF expects to operate the most capable fighters in the world. While the F-22 is an air-to-air specialist and the F-35 is designed for ground attack, Carlisle said both fighters still have no equal.F-22 production clearly should be restarted as soon as practical, with exports allowed to Japan and Australia. We should also replace some F-35 orders with F-22 orders, since the F-22 is now the less expensive alternative. That cost would continue to drop as more planes are manufactured."The F-22 does better air-to-groud than anybody than the F-35," Carlisle said, "and the F-35 does air-to-air better than anything in the world except the F-22."
Not to mention that the F-22 is already mission-capable!
Also note that the USAF sees a strong air-to-ground role for the F-22.
This surprizes who?
We’re sending our industry and money to China.
What else can happen?
We are becoming a non-nation, no industry, no jobs and no money.
Of course we are going to collapse. How’s that “free trade” thing working America?
Need mo money fo food stamps.
They know future generations of UAVs will kill off any manned fighter with ease. Even the Military/Industrial Complex realizes a bad bet when it sees one. A paradigm shift has arrived, like when Billy Mitchell rendered the battleship obsolete.