Long time ago, I posted something to this effect, so forgive me for the repeat story. I was a T-6 Flight Commander at Vance AFB in 2006 and I had a long conversation with my CO about the future of our Services. He is an all-USAF fighter guy, in good shape to screen for his first star (PM me if you want to know more about him). I asked him why the Air Force was holding on so tight to a program so far over budget, so far below its promised capabilities, and leveraging the rest of its manned fixed wing force to purchase less than 190 of a type that was supposed to replace over 1,000. His answer was as direct as it was candid..."It's all we got." Basically, not only is the program too big to fail but its existence is the main reason why USAF is able to keep its roughly quarter of the Defense Budget allocated to the Services and that is something that the Air Staff would never endanger. So fast forward 6 years and it makes sense to this casual observer (with no insider information) why the Air Force would re-launch the fleet before fixing the problem. "The Raptors must fly" just as "the Spice must flow."