“For crying out loud just buy some F-15s.”
The fleet that exists now is constantly being upgraded, I’m baffled as to why we don’t just procure some of the newer models like the SJ. I’d like to see what the cost of upgrade, plus constant maintenance on the C,D,&E models is in comparison to procuring new aircraft and phasing out, or mothballing old ones.
And the picture at the link is of an F-22.
I never defend the F-35.
I won’t really defend the thinking of the DoD.
But I will explain that part of the purpose of the new designs (some good, some bad) is to keep the defense industry alive. Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop and the rest can’t survive on producing simple upgrades. They need new expensive programs. The government typically wants those companies around in case we need them, so we fund them with fancy new programs just to keep the firms alive. For example: if we lose our ship-building capability (and we have little left for big Navy vessels) then we would have an awful time trying to resurrect it. So we fund ships just to keep the shipyards.