"phil hunt" wrote in message
. ..

I was under the impression that the current build number was 276,
and congress is considering reducing it to around 180. In any case,
there seems no likelihood that 400 will be built unlress the present
political climate changes a lot.

You are mistaken, the number of F-22s to be produced was 180 a year ago.
The funding for the f-22 is dollar capped and each slide in time reduces the
number of airframes delivered. The 276 number is only a fantasy some ram
participant pulled out of their ass.

The likely maximum operational F-22 airframes has fallen further over the
past year, as another year has been ****ed away.

The F-35 is a cheaper plane than the F-22, and having just one
fighter would provide savings on training, spare parts, etc, so it's
likely that for every F-22 not built the USA could afford 3 or so
F-35s.

Shutting down the line in Gerogia will not be cheap, as that was the main
thrust for going into production so prematurely. The money is pretty much
spent, whether the US builds F-22s, or not.