I believe the ball has really been dropped by the USAF, by not advocating the export of the F-22 to trusted allieslike Australia- the F-22 would appear to fill the void that the F-35 is being proposed to fill. Australia has a outstanding requirement for 90-110 new fighter aircraft to replace both our deep strike F-111s and our F/A-18’s, and we are going to the length of purchasing E/F/A-18F’s as a stop gap to F-35 delivery.

Wouldnt it benefit the USAF to work towards an australian purchase of F-22’s (around 100) therefore meaning the unit price of the F-22 would go down, the need for australia to set up F-22 infrastructure would also provide useful training to the USAF in FOL excercises, and the E/F/A-18’s on the production line could be bought by the USN to help fill the gap of their own F-35 purchase, and as no F-35 have been built, no harm no foul.

Just a thought