Not saying its a good capability to have, I’m saying it MAY be unaffordable. There are going to be cuts in defence. Both repubs and dems are saying that. so I hope the Marines are making contigencies(sp) for a worst case scenario.

Using the great cluster(censored) that was urgent fury as an example of anything is not the best way to go about getting a point across. That was pure overkill all over. It should have been an all Marine or all airborne operation, not some huge confused riot in the name of “jointness”. But be that as it may, the Marins say they need, and will have nothing else but, the F-35B. In this they have painted themselves into a costly and potentialy embarrasing corner. If it is canned, which is a strong possibility but not set in stone, they will very quickly have to come up with a whole new aviation plan and possibly an entirly new doctrine for how they plan to operate.

Saw “Black Swan”………..not sure what its about, but, WOW!!! Natalie Portman doin it with Mila Kunis!

Yes, the foreign F/A-18s are all carrier capable. The land-based version of the F/A-18L (by Northrop) was never purchased by any country. It would have been a better fighter being tons lighter in weight with same engines as the carrier F/A-18s. The only disadvantage was the life of the frame was shorter, by how much I don’t know. I do know the carrier borne version was designed for 100 landings per year for twenty years! A frame life of 8,500 flight hours.

If the F-35B gets canceled, it will throw the USN into a tail-spin similar to what happen when the A-12 Avenger II carrier borne stealth medium bomber was canceled in 1991. That left the A-6 Intruder which was going to be retired by the mid-1990s as the only carrier plane with good range. The F/A-18 carries half the ordnance load and has less than half the range. The Harrier has reached the end of its effective modification life. A stealthy Harrier would be nice or, super effective ECM (like the Rafale or Typhoon have) would be the next best step. The new SAMs with LPI radars will chew up attacks by aircraft which don’t have the latest in ECM. The Super Hornet will have to ‘soldier on’ being the best the USN can provide in air defense for an amphibious task force. The Harriers will be their back-up.
The USN has already given up the outer air defense zone and the Super Hornet along with the aegis ships will prove defense in the middle air defense zone.
It could get ugly if an F/A-18E/F interceptor has to go against an attacking Su-30MKK (or MKI) or, later designed fighter-bombers equipted with the replacement for the Adder missile for self defense while carrying one SS-N-22 Sunburn missile each. To me that is a worst case scenario!

If the “B” gets canned it would certainly throw the Marines into a tailspin, but I dont see it effecting the Navy very much. The “C” version is doin fine.

Would LM say ANYTHING different? Really……..they have lost all credibility at this point. I think an independant 3rd party evaluation is going to be called for.