[Snickering Hound]

There were about 1000 subcontractors for the program to get Congress to pony up the dough.

Much of that tooling is likely gone.

Better to spend that money on developing air superiority drones.

[pfflier]

The tooling is not gone. I know exactly where it is and what state of preservation it is in. Complete and in good shape. It is reconstitutable for an assembly line.

I worked extensively with the subcontractors at the time and they can still meet the needs of the program. Their tooling needs are minimum and the advances in computer aided manufacturing, particularly 3-D printing may well replace most of the tooling and premium casting methods they previously used.

This is "do-able" if the USAF doesn't hang alot of new horns, bells and whistles on the airframe