And in the meantime you have the USAF "Incredible Shrinking Fighter Force". For all the denials, the cuts are coming, and the spiral becoming recognisable - again.....
US Air Force Cuts Five F-35 Fighter Jets From Budget Request
"WASHINGTON – The US Air Force cut five F-35As from its fiscal year 2017 budget request while fully funding the Long Range Strike Bomber and KC-46 tanker, individuals with knowledge of the budget told Defense News. The Air Force reduced the F-35A buy in FY-17 from a planned 48 aircraft to just 43, according to one source. It is not clear if the Air Force will reduce the overall planned buy of 1,763 aircraft.........
The F-35A cut is not a surprise. Analysts and top government officials have hinted for months that changes could be ahead for the JSF as part of the Pentagon’s effort to balance its books. Frank Kendall, undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, said in December that the Defense Department expects to make “disproportionate” cuts to modernization in FY17 – and he indicated a slowdown in F-35 production was likely.........
Cutting F-35As in FY17 will likely yield millions in savings over the next several years. The Air Force had planned to buy 44 F-35As in FY16 and 48 in FY17, before ramping up to 60 a year starting in FY18. But reducing that to 48 a year would free up approximately $1 billion per year for other priorities, the Congressional Research Service’s Jeremiah Gertler wrote in a December report.
“It’s the overwhelming elephant in the Air Force’s procurement budget,” Mackenzie Eaglen of the American Enterprise Institute told Defense News earlier this week. “They are not going to want to eat Bomber lunch at the expense of the JSF.”
The Air Force’s FY17 budget request also includes commitement to moving forward with the Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System recapitalization effort, the Combat Rescue Helicopter, and restocking munitions expended in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, according to the source