In other words...
We made a terrible decision to cap F-22 production at less than 200 aircraft, and refused to sell them to Japan and Australia (and did we mention the production line is gone and it would be too expensive to re-build it?)
We don’t have enough money in the R&D budget to design and produce a true, sixth-generation fighter (thanks, Barry)
The F-35 becomes the de facto choice for future, manned tactical aircraft.
My crystal ball says the first sixth-generation fighter will be a drone.
I don’t understand the decision to shut down the F-22. What was the marginal costs of production since all the fixed sunk costs were finished?
“My crystal ball says the first sixth-generation fighter will be a drone.”
My crystal ball says the 6th generation will be soviet design, china build, north Korea serviced in the North Americano international justice command.
Yep. And if done properly they use a cheap, networkable, mass-produced design and let it rapidly evolve along with the tactical environment, rather than imagining a do-everything super-weapon.