You're right of course, why send additional aircraft to protect something that can't be detected. A "duh?" on my part.

In the same light, if you don't need all those support aircraft, (and the people in them, and supporting them),...you're saving a load of money. Does that savings begin to offset the F-22's sticker shock? (Have seen scary numbers like 130 to 200 million dollars per unit)

There was a great deal of debate over the cost of the F-15 in the early 70's. Can't recall the numbers exactly, but I think the initial toll was about 35 million dollars per unit. 35 million isn't chicken feed today, but at that time there was tremendous heartburn over spending such a fortune on a single aircraft that, (Remembering the the Century Series fighters a decade or so before) might be obsolete in five years.

As it turns out, we got our moneys worth, and then some, from the legacy fighters.

P.S. Whenever I'm in Tucson, I try to make time to visit the Pima Air Museum, just to stand next to Blackbird #64-17951.