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I would assume the same line that they built the F-22 on has now been retooled for the F-35. So restarting the F-22 would likely put a crimp in F-35 deliveries, unless the government pays for a whole new assembly line for the F-22. And what would that add to the per-unit cost?

I think the whole of the line, tools and videos of how to were mothballed.

Problem is the the Heads up Helmut the F-22 (like the F-35 has) was supposed to have (40 yr old tech) on launch still has not arrived.

Coat is likely prohibitive as the tech is old and there is likely something flying around Groom that is much better.

I would assume the same line that they built the F-22 on has now been retooled for the F-35.

Yes.

So restarting the F-22 would likely put a crimp in F-35 deliveries,

No. The production facilities in Georgia (final assembly on F-22) and Fort Worth (final assembly for F-35) are huge. The Fort Worth plant is over a mile long, and the Georgia plant is nearly that long. Setting up for F-22 would have negligible effect on F-35 production. However, the tooling has been removed so it would need to be set up again in another part of the plant. When we started F-35 rate production we moved the entire F-16 production to a different building on the Fort Worth reservation and never missed a delivery. And that's without serious and continuous overtime.

A worse problem is 'diminishing manufacturing resources' which means things like computer chips that were state-of-the-art when the F-22 was designed are no longer available. Obviously, better ones *are* available, but that would take some design and test effort to implement. It wouldn't be cheap. By the time that redesign/retest effort was completed the production facilities could be ready.

A further potential issue is that the F-35 software architecture is better than that on the F-22 (time marches on). Changing the software architecture to be more state-of-the-art would be a major task, but might be worthwhile. It depends on how many units they want to build. (See comments above.)

You are correct.

The cost of re-starting the line is astronomical. . .billions, and the expertise, production tools, second and third tier suppliers that require years of advance contracting to acquire components. . .setting up the production line will take years. . .not cheap. . .and it is not exportable by legislation so if we want to cost-share fundamental changes to make exportable then we must invest in the tens of millions to re-program and millions of line of code must be changed.

Not as easy as some think it is as it is darned hard and costly beyond comprehension.

License the construction. It was done all the time in the War.

I would assume the same line that they built the F-22 on has now been retooled for the F-35. So restarting the F-22 would likely put a crimp in F-35 deliveries, unless the government pays for a whole new assembly line for the F-22. And what would that add to the per-unit cost?

I think the F-35 is assembled in Fort Worth, TX and the F-22 was assembled here in Marietta, GA, right down the road from The Big Chicken.

F-22 Raptors were built in Georgia. F-35 moonpigs are made in Fort Worth Texas.