The Advanced F-15: Ready for the Fight

Well I'm leaving it here but the 187 figure was never agreed by anyone at any time, that was just the number they ended up with after the cancellation on 13th April 2009 under the Obama Administration. You can read the facts on Page 44 of the July 2015 edition of Air INTERNATIONAL. Nobody suggested any conspiracy as such, although it is well known that Gates was the main protagonist behind cancelling the F-22 and made sure that it never dropped a single bomb before it was cancelled. Additionally, he used fake reasons for getting rid of Wynne and Mosley who would not give up on their 381 figure and Obama kept the guy on, these are all facts. He made a short-sighted decision based on short-term thinking and an ongoing asymmetric war where advanced technology was almost redundant. Much of the money saved was spent on equipment that has now been left in Iraq.

Oh, OK, so an article in Air International written by some guy are somehow facts, but OSD reports and budget decisions are apparently fiction.

Look, the number 187 is certainly no coincidence. Rumsfeld order a study which reported that the smallest number the USAF can deal with is 179. The USAF disagreed, but nobody in OSD cared. So, Rumsfeld's OSD removed budget from the program and only paid for those 179 production units (plus those 8 development aircraft => 187).

Again, Congress could have fought it and demand for administration to add funds in the budget for the F-22, they were well briefed on reasons pro and cons, yet they voted to approve the budget that ended the F-22 production. Why? Because it made sense at the time since the money was needed for other projects while the F-22 was way over-budget and very late, and the fact it was single-role in times of low-tech wars (which were draining the budget) didn't help much.

Regarding Wynne and Mosley, there were not "fake reasons" against them, but apparently pretty legitimate ones. Besides, they are subordinated to the SecDef, so he's well within his rights to remove them if he can't work with them.

Conspiracy theories stuff is exactly this stuff you're presenting here - ignoring all suggestions to the contrary and making it seem as if there was this huge sinister conspiracy to kill the F-22 just because they can and claim that everything that happened was somehow connected to that and that thing only (e.g. Obama keeping Gates in charge, Gates firing those officials, etc.).

If you could just be bothered to read something longer than that condensed and opinionated Air International article (e.g. at least the whole congressional report, plus search for articles on why these guys were fired), you might realize that, as always, things are much more complicated in real life.

Very late? It was 4 years behind the planned 2001 date, which isn't that bad in military aircraft terms. It was cancelled in April 2009.