WHAT ! I missed that announcement Dumb.
Boy I hate to sound tinfoil. But the more I hear of things like this. The more I think were being set up for a China takeover.
Cheney and the head of Grumman (at the time - I forgot his name) had a bit of a snit. Grumman guy was bragging about how the Navy couldn't get anyone else to build aircraft like they could. Cheney decided to throw a bit of testosterone around to show him "what-for", and had the contract cancelled (he was Secretary of Defense at the time). Also, wrote an amendment to it as part of close out to destroy the tooling, and paid for it. There was no public announcement.
There are a few words to describe it: Small-minded, spiteful, asinine, short-sighted, bordering-on-treason to deprive the country of its best war-fighting fighter jet.