US & Russian fighter jets midair confrontation

It is critical for the US and other Western countries to continue to advance their technology. The advanced lead we once had is not nearly as large any more. Both China and Russia have continued to close that gap.
When the movie Top Gun cake out in the mid 1980's the US had a significant technological lead over the Soviets. When the next Top Gun movie is released this upcoming year the massively unfair tech advantage will unfortunately have been heavily minimized.
Our militaries are no longer getting the best tech available as politicians are focused more on maintaining jobs in their constituencies than helping militaries get what they need. The "military industrial complex" is wise to this and has stacked the deck in favor of lining their own pockets. They do this by creating programs that create jobs in as many states as possible so that US Senators will vote for their programs over the ones that would provide the best tech but with lesser costs and fewer jobs maintained or created
Two great examples of this are the controversial and recent F35 program and the current state of NASA.
If Americans don't put their interest first we are going to lose this great Republic to the many international and domestic wolves at the door.