F/B-22: Does the "regional bomber" have a chance?

With all of the talk about a possible cancellation of the F-35A, I thought it was time to reopen the issue of the F/B-22. Air International had an AirData File on the the F/B-22 this summer (an issue that I unfortunately missed due to the limited distribution of the magazine in North America).

From what I’ve seen, the initial bombing campaign in Afganistan was a turning point in defense planning. Nothing much smaller than the F-15E could offer enough range and loiter time to be of use in Afganistan. As we all know, the RAF’s role was limited to inflight refueling simply because the Tornado GR.4 was utterly useless in terms of range – despite the very successful avionics and weapons upgrade.

Perhaps any aircraft in the weight and perfomance class of the F-16 (or the F-35A) lacks the fuel fraction to be of use in any potential conflict?

The F/B-22 “bomber” still seems like a very expensive propostion, but so does the idea of buying 2000+ F-35A fighters that might just be useless in any conceivable future conflict.

Can the F/B-22 actually make it to production?

Has a final configuration been arrived at? The earliest concepts showed a completely tailless, highly swept delta wing F-22 variant, something that looked quite a bit like India’s MCA. Lately, the artwork has shown a very wide wingspan and the verticle tail surfaces are back?