It's about financial compensation payments, money, and job shares. The F35 has little to do with it. It was not much different with the cuts in orders the raptor has seen. The F22 now is bought in numvbers that let critics say they doubt he military use of an aircraft that will be available only in so low quantities. Other critics in Europe already said the same about the Eurofighter, although for eurpope the strategic perpsective is less unsatisfying than it is for the US, since Europe is not so massively militarily engaged around all the globe.
stanislaw Lem once wrote in a satiric essay on the future, that in the late 21st century the mighty US air force will consist of only three planes anymore. More they will not be able to afford.
and these planes will never been flown - they also cannot afford to loose one of them in an accident.
