Meanwhile everyone keeps buying all the F-35s they can get.
It’s everything they want their new, future fighter to be...but available now.
And cost is down to < $80mil per copy.
“https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/f-35-far-more-super-f-4-phantom-jet-176046“
Cheaper than modern 4th generation aircraft.
But it sucks.
LOL
The F22 will destroy it. But the US doesn’t want that fact known.
There are considerations more than mere costs. Technology sharing, developing sovereign manufacturing capabilities etc. Plus the US jealously guards the source code of the f35 except in the UK and Israeli ones which can be used to brick them if the Americans don’t like it. Britain has to negotiate hard to secure sovereign access to the source code.
This is essential in order to prevent some plastic paddy like Biden deciding not support Britain facing another Falklands war type scenario.