F-22s are expensive; so are F-35s.  Why bother spending so much money on planes? 

We can easily save money by using old fighter technology...

...Except when foreign capabilities rival ours, such as:
 The Su-27, operated by Algeria, Belarus, China, Eritrea, Ethiopia,

India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Ukraine,

Uzbekistan, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

MiG-29 operated by Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus,

Bulgaria, Cuba, Eritrea, Hungary, India, Iran, Kazakhstan,

Malaysia, Myanmar, North Korea, Peru, Poland, Russia, Serbia,

Slovakia, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and

Yemen.

5th-generation fighters are currently being developed by Russia

and China to challenge the F-22 and F-35:  and they will then

likely be sold to the countries operating the Su-27 and Mig-29.

S-300 Anti-Aircraft Missiles being deployed around the world.

A Chinese Anti-Aircraft Carrier missile is under development.

...But who needs conventional capability?

    What does the Air Force have in common with Air Conditioning in the summer?  Quite a bit, come to find out.  The Air Force Association CEO, Mike Dunn (Lieutenant General, USAF, Retired), sent out an email this morning which does a good job explaining how supporting less-functional legacy systems is costly and time consuming (which ultimately means "even more costly").  Read his note after the 'read more' break.