Good news! I can wrangle up an APG-73 for your jet, but sadly the company has it on layaway. If you would be so kind to give me your bank account and social security numbers, I can make the deposit to send that bad boy your way for your new trainer.
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Well most of the USA pretty much is a third wprld country these days so yeah 
Ouch. That’s dire.
Oh no, I’ve heard they’re planning on the T-X being in service until 2100.
Not the time. The year. As in approx 75 years.
Past the time of WWIII, the establishment of faster-than-light travel, and the Vulcans introducing themselves to Cochrane in the Montana badlands 2100.
The B-52 has almost reached that point and they’re not planning on getting rid of them yet.
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You’ll find that aircraft design closely mimics biological evolution. As aircraft are tweaked and toyed with in the race to create more perfect shape, they start to look more and more similar as they’re starting to fill a niche.
You’ll see this in the fossil record, as well. Let’s take the shape and niche of the croc/gator. It’s not the first creature to adopt that look. In the late Triassic, there was a critter we’ve named Metoposaurus algarvensis and it looks like 'gator. Squat to the ground, short legs with strength for hurling itself, big jaws to clamp and pull prey with it, it’s sort of the archetype of the alligator. However, it was a big damned salamander. There was even an early whale that possessed that design.
So, as we design aircraft to better utilize lift, thrust, while minimizing drag as much as we can, you’ll find we’re going to be creating more and more similar designs.
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Or Boeing is spoofing the taypayer by saying, “Yes, yes, we’re milking you. But if you amortize the cost of the planes over their 80 year lifespan, it only amounts to 5 bucks per day per jet. You all can afford a fiver, can’t you?”
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Well, it did work for LockMart, so…
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