"I recall that the F-22 had a number ... that got cut.
The C-17 had a number .. that got cut.
The B-2 had a number ... that got cut.
IIRC the Zumwalt class had a number ... that got cut.
One of our recent submarine programs fared similarly."
All of these programs suffered from enormous cost inflation - much of it due to the desire to go to the absolute cutting edge of technology on several fronts at the same time (the Zumwalts are typical). Sometimes you need a program like the F-16 - low risk and relatively cheap that you can deploy quickly in numbers.
Interesting that Esper mentions "increased range" which is of course an issue with the F-35 - but then why have the USN not built on the MQ-25 technology immediately for strike purposes? Kicking the can down the road seems to a classic case of vested interests in the manned fighter community