I don’t think they are blaming the plane, but with only 8 left of those 35 year olds planes, it is probably time to adopt a new platform for current use.
Good point. At some point you have too few for an operational capability. They have lots of great F-16s and apparently are acquiring some recon pods. It makes more sense to have a few brand new pods that all work the same instead of a mix of pods and some a few F-4s’