Quote Originally Posted by William F. Owen View Post
Let me ask the question the other way around.

Why would continuing to build and employ F16, A-10, AV-8B+, and F-15X be a bad idea? Why wouldn't this work?
Age of airframes. You can manufacture new ones (assuming that the production line tools remain) or "zero-hour" them (which also practically means remanufacturing them).

Design. There is a limit as to how much you can squeeze out of an existing airframe in terms of flight performance, space for avionics, etc. This is partly what killed the F20, ie an F16 with a brand new airframe and resulting growth potential. You can't plug in F22 engines into an F15E and expect a performance boost, even if the engines fit.

While there is no big Red Army capable of beating down the gates of Western European capitals right now, there is still a necessity of maintaining a credible force with at least technological parity if not superior.

Aside: I see that the RAF is fighting to maintain its budget share, but I guess this is for another thread (or even another forum).