Flying 1960's fighters?
Excuse me- but the Air Force isn't flying 1960's fighters.
Curerntly they are flying the F16C/D, which has the latest technology. Lockheed is still producing them today.
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/news/press_releases/2008/071508ae_f16_farnborough.html
When, by the way- was the last time an F-16 was shot down by an enemy aircraft? It's never happened.
My point being that if the purpose of the F35 is to become an air-superiority fighter, exactly what threat is it designed to counter, that can't be countered with the present aircraft fleet? Who is the enemy that it is intended to defeat?
By the way- according to yesterday's Govexec.com, the cost of a single F35 has now jumped to $200 million dollars.
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=44779&oref=todaysnews
Let's see- if we buy 2,400 of those, at $200 million apiece, that works out to a LOT of cash.
The next war isn't likely to be against a better armed conventional force enemy using billion dollar jeet fighers.
The next war will be faught by those using computer hacking, and probably a lot of IEDs and just plain bullets. F35 doesn't work very well against those- and for $200 million apiece, you don't get very much bang for the buck.