If they can be put back into production, we could use more!
“If they can be put back into production, we could use more!”
I have been part of restarting production for weapons that are out of production. It is extremely difficult and expensive. The designs are frozen long before the original production began, meaning that components that were in production when the design was created are often no longer in production when the product is actually being produced. In many ways it is easier to redesign new subsystems than it is to restart, potentially, dozens of production lines at as many companies. The requirement for the weapons system are so tiny that it usually makes no sense for, say, a chip manufacturer to restart an obsolete line. Often, the equipment the chip manufacturer would need is long gone.
I suspect what’s happening here is Trump is offering them a few of the only F22’s produced as we are probably ready with the F22’s replacement.
In any case, maintaining the F22’s is going to be challenging. More so than, say, creating a new plane altogether.