It is wild that they’ve turned this project around from the avatar of wasteful defense spending, to the jet that everybody wants.
That was the f22. And we blocked international sales in favor of the f35. The death of the f22 should not be mourned, we will get 6th gen research to replace it.
As for the everybody wants it bit, this is very true. Much to the ~~shargrin~~ chagrin of EU military industry. With one of our presidential candidates calling for us pulling out of nato, with us not backing Ukraine, I would expect that the f35 is the last major military product we sell in the EU this way. And for as much as I might not love it, that spending is a large part of our exports and economy.