Possibly incendiary and ill advised, but wouldn't it be a good move, in response to Chinese aggression with its hegemonic air security zone, to start up the F-22 line again and sell it to Japan and South Korea and Australia? They want the plane and it would definitely send the message to China that escalation, no matter how they may hide it behind incremental actions and shallow legalisms, is maybe not such a good idea. Besides, America must keep its technological edge - but budget cuts threaten that imperative - an arms race in the South Pacific helps. Of course, encouraging an arms race in order to pump our military R&D is to play with fire - but I imagine that arms race is coming no matter what - look how South Korea, in response to a show of weakness by Obama [a show of weakness? The man is like a frickin' festival of enfeeblement] has taken upon itself to aggressively enlarge its own security zone - that's just the beginning, far as I'm concerned, which means three things happen here: we disincentivize China's predations with a show of strength; we don't and conflict becomes inevitable; we surrender. I choose the first option - start building those F-22s again. Of course, the F-35's a nice plane too... but much nicer I think when working in concert with Raptors, which is the way it was always meant to be.
