<sigh/> If you have any delusions about America's ability to fight even a semi-serious war against even a competent 4th-rate power...
From a skim of Wikipedia, F-22's cost >$100M each, and production lead time is years. If the Elbonians needed 4 kamikaze drones @$250 to destroy each F-22 on the ground...yeah. And the USAF is looking at physical nets to protect their 9-figure assets - because their Force Protection and Airspace Control are so apocalyptically bad, within their own domestic airbases, that any technology less than 10,000 years old is simply off the table.
The USAF has no way to build new F-22s. If they want to restart production, it will cost billions of dollars and take several years.
The production line was shut down, and much of the tooling was destroyed. The engines are no longer made. Most of the electronic systems will need to be redesigned and requalified with modern components.
<sigh/> If you have any delusions about America's ability to fight even a semi-serious war against even a competent 4th-rate power...
From a skim of Wikipedia, F-22's cost >$100M each, and production lead time is years. If the Elbonians needed 4 kamikaze drones @$250 to destroy each F-22 on the ground...yeah. And the USAF is looking at physical nets to protect their 9-figure assets - because their Force Protection and Airspace Control are so apocalyptically bad, within their own domestic airbases, that any technology less than 10,000 years old is simply off the table.
The USAF has no way to build new F-22s. If they want to restart production, it will cost billions of dollars and take several years.
The production line was shut down, and much of the tooling was destroyed. The engines are no longer made. Most of the electronic systems will need to be redesigned and requalified with modern components.