F-22.

This is coolbert:

From the op-ed page of the Chicago Tribune today:

"Luxury vs. Reality"

"A disciplined vote against the F-22."

As is well known [?] now, the Department of Defense [DoD] is going to stop production of the F-22 fighter plane.

The state-of-the-art air superiority fighter, highly vaunted, but very expensive.

187 total [F-22's] have been built and are already in the inventory.

The F-35 fighter plane now [?] coming off the assembly line has been decided as the way to go? About 2,000 are going to be built, with a goodly number also sold to foreign nations! Less expensive than the F-22, less capable [how much less?], but still more than adequate!

And here from the op-ed piece, this quote, which somewhat startles me:

According to Defense analyst Cindy William s of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT]:

"I would be surprised if Russia or China could match the F-35 as soon as 25 years from now."

Whoa! 25 years for the Chinese or Russians to produce and field an aircraft that will match the F-35?

The F-35 is expected to last until about 2050 as the mainstay of the USAF striking force? And of course Cindy is MIT, so she must be right, but I do ask myself, WHOA!

Such an estimate - - does it surprise anyone else other than me?

coolbert.