No no the first thing to do would be have a design authority with big enough clout and experience to say no to both industry and the services when things like requirements, budgets are being set/tweaked pre/post contract signature.
We can develop a new aircraft ourselves provided we don't design a new power plant,radar, other systems, airframe ect all at the same time perhaps a few existing in production systems in a new airframe with sufficient space to swap out later on would be a gd starting point.