So in a nut shell the AF, who seem to not be able to find their backside with a mirror and a stick, perhaps with faulty congressional input and decision making either do not have sufficient numbers of F-22 fighters, out dated fighters at that. The golden boy is the F-35 which is not operational and is unproven. Considering that the F-22 is old technology in just about every area, whether air frame design, relatively small load out, outdated and cumbersome computer software; retooling and getting the assembly line going again doesn’t make a lot of sense. In fact it would seem that our fighter force has been effectively neutered due to incompetence and lack of foresight. Harsh but I see no other explanation for the fix that we are in. The only viable option in getting a mission capable fighter is to buy foreign. Several allied or neutral countries have outstanding fighters, just as long as they don’t scrap them in favor of the F-35.