Yeah I took a look at the different think tanks' opinions when they were first published. Only one of them advocates not cutting any F35s and I have to say, I'm dubious that retiring a legacy aircraft early and ramping up production of a developing aircraft is going to save any money, when the replacement aircraft is known to be more expensive to operate; they did the exact opposite a couple of years ago to save money! I'm also dubious that the USAF would willingly take such a big capability gap over such an expansive fleet.
All the others either cut personnel numbers massively or went to town on the operating budget...and we all know that a weapon is only as good as its operator, so I wouldn't count on it being cut the way they have suggested.
The worst part of all for the F35 is that this is all money that has to be saved this decade, not somewhere down the line. So any cut in numbers can't be deferred to the 2020s...meaning there is also now a threat that the countries that are maxing out their budgets for it would find the resultant price increase difficult to swallow.