I do wonder if the current political situation could impact future F35 orders and in many ways more importantly any follow on to the F35. The development of the F35 was to some extent assisted by other countries such as the UK and already there are two European projects underway to look at a replacement. Personally I doubt that both of them will go ahead but am pretty confident that one of them will.
If the European countries favour the European project, then that means that the USA alone will fund the development of the USA follow on. The number of aircraft sold will be less due to fewer overseas sales. This in turn will drive up the unit cost to the USA for their purchases. It's worth noting that Saudi Arabia are already looking to get involved in one of the European projects, and they have a lot of cash to offer to help with the development and a near certainty of substantial orders.
An interesting test will be which direction will the UK government go. They are looking at purchasing some additional new aircraft and the choice seems to be between additional F35s, or additional Typhoons. The RAF would prefer more F35, whilst the unions would prefer more Typhoons. The F35 is the more capable aircraft certainly, however, the Typhoon is still better than anything it is likely to face. For a Labour Party government it was always going to be a close decision and the current uncertainty could easily tilt things one way or the other.
The days when the USA had a clear technical lead over the rest of the world are gone. Look at any military field, land, sea or air and there are alternatives, let alone the situation re the civilian aircraft available to potential customers.
I do hope that this isn't seen as a political posting. We are all where we are today and this a thought about where things may go looking forward.
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