The plane is 20 years old, can’t they come up with a new and improved design? I remember seeing a demonstration of the F-22 at Oshkosh back around 2004.
The F-15c was developed 40 years ago, and it’s still the 2nd best pure fighter in the world.
JSF competition started in 1996.. F-35 has been if test 17+ years.
Because it would be more than 20 years before it would be deployed. We need new fighter now.
F22 always was a higher capability fighter than the slower, less capacity, less range F35. Still is.
The “Prime Parts” of every advanced fighter are the Radar and Avionics. A “B-Model” F-22 would be effectively a different airplane, but would also allow an upgrade path to the existing “A-Models”.
If you think you are going to war, or are quickly expanding your fleet, you buy what’s effectively in the pipeline. What you don’t do is issue a blank check to Lockheed-Martin (or anybody else) to take another 15 years to engineer something before you start fielding new squadrons.
The B-1, M1 Tank and Bradley Fighting Vehicle were all developed during the Carter years. Carter wouldn’t pull the trigger for production... Reagan did.