Well, drones don't have to be cheap, and could hypothetically be just as capable as fighters in most respects (and much more capable in some respects).
Stinger's cost ~38k and are not guaranteed to work so multiply that by the probability of failure.
You can buy drone control system can cost below 1,500$ ex: http://www.micropilot.com/products-mp1028g.htm, granted there are good reasons to buy / build something far more expensive but we are looking at low cost baseline. After that it's a question of range and payload for 10,000$ you can get an RC jet that can do 200 mph and carry a camcorder for surveillance. Call it 15k for a fairly respectable surveillance aircraft. As to being able to fight back just add a spike.
PS: Now figure out what you can do with say 10 billion$ aka 600,000 of these things. Worse yet that's just an opening, they are cheap enough that you have plenty of budget for other things.
While budget overruns are painful, the idea behind standardizing our fighter jets between the forces, thereby reducing costs is a wise move.
I always thought of the F-22 as a hand-built race car, while these F-35 are Porsche's that can be mass produced, are just as "fast" and will be more reliable due to the standardization.
Also deploying cheap drones are only possible when you dominate the skies with these expensive, complex, man-powered jets.