The F-35

[SteelCurtain]

In other words, why not just stick with what we already know works well?

Air superiority as a whole only works if you maintain it. And the reason we can't keep the old planes is because like any hardware, it stops being economically viable to maintain after a time. If you get only get 100 flight hours out of an airframe before it need minor overhaul, you are just throwing money into it.

Also, the reason McDonnell-Douglas, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, and Lockheed keep getting government contracts is because they are smart. They don't just keep making the same airframe forever. They make it more difficult to maintain these aircraft long term by stopping support after a time. They'll stop making a critical part, stop supporting a certain avionics package, or even make a new avionics package or part that requires a platform upgrade. In other words, they slowly make it easier and more cost effective long term to put a contract out for the next generation aircraft.

Bottom line is you are never going to get the bureaucracy out of this process. It is always going to waste time, money, and probably lives in the test phase. Check out the MV-22 fiasco as a perfect example.