You are trying to compare the overheads of a STOVL training program with that needed for CATOBAR deck qualification and continuation training?.

No, I’m trying to explain that there is no STOVL-only training program and one would have to be established. Right now you send them to the Carrier track or the Helicopter track. There is no RAF-style land based track to send them to. Then after you’ve spent money on activating a Marine STOVL training wing that is basically the intermediate and advanced jet programs without carrier field landing and shipboard training, if one of the STOVL pilots ever switches track to the Charlie or decides to go into naval test pilot training, you have to send them back to T-45s to be trained on carrier operations before reporting to the fleet replacement squadron or USNTPS.

Why? Sounds like a waste of money to me. Why train them at great expense in a skill which needs constant practice to maintain, & which they don’t use?

Not a completely different syllabus, BTW. I don’t see why it wouldn’t be pretty near identical up to type qualification for F-18 & Harrier, which you’d follow by separate carrier qualifications. STOVL pilots just omit the F-18/F-35C & cat & trap sections & instead go on to separate type & STOVL deck landing & T/O training – which they have to do anyway.

A bit difficult to simulate STOVL in a T-45.

The STOVL crowd seem to forget about the 2/3rds of Marine strikefighter pilots flying hornets and that even the ones flying harriers had to do conventional carrier training to get their wings of gold. Its an inconvenience, not a show stopper. It gets canceled, they probably have to develop new lightweight deployable field cats and arresting gear systems.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/03/navy_dfn_jsf_031411w/

The first Navy F-35C carrier squadron is set to stand up in December 2015, with the first Marine F-35C squadron following a year later.

By the mid-2020s, according to Navy planners, each carrier air wing will have two Super Hornet squadrons and two Lightning II squadrons. Every fourth F-35C squadron will be a Marine squadron.

The Navy continues to plan for a fleet of 10 carrier air wings, with 44 strike fighters per wing, organized into 10- and 12-plane squadrons. The Navy will field 35 strike fighter squadrons composed of Super Hornets and F-35Cs, and the Marines will supply five F-35C squadrons.

The Navy Department still intends to buy 680 F-35 joint strike fighters. Of those, 260 will be Navy F-35Cs, another 80 F-35Cs will be Marine aircraft, and the STOVL version for the Corps will make up 340 planes, or half the total Navy-Marine JSF fleet. The Lightnings will serve alongside a total fleet of 556 F/A-18 Es and Fs.

There is no intention to field an all-JSF force with any carrier air wing, a senior Navy official said. A new, sixth-generation aircraft will be developed as a follow-on to the F-35, and those aircraft will replace the Super Hornets.

I don’t know about you but that sounds to me that they have lowered their expectations for the F-35B and what it was supposed to do and it now looks like it will just do the CAS role with the ground forces whilst their C aircraft alongside the USN versions do all the other missions ?.

They don’t sound very confident over sea trials with the B at present do they, if they are then Italy should be seriously worried as they are quite commited to the type.

For italy it should be fine since its a STOVL-only axial deck… if it ever enters service. The problem is mixing it with CATOBAR ops.

The latter model will now only embark on the ‘Gators’ at sea and not the Big Deck Carriers, instantly removing any worries about operating STOVL aircraft from CATOBAR ships (already proved to be straightforward back in 77 when a Marine Harrier sqn embarked on the FDR…).;)

Though the Harrier operates a little differently than what the F-35B would have to.

Possibly partly why the UK switched their purchase to the F-35C then.

They probably would have inside information. Then again, its more a priority with the RAF. They want these to replace the Tornadoes now, not the Harriers.

Kinda feel sorry for Italy and Spain. Their carriers can’t really be modified to operate F-35C. Not big enough.

Spain hasn’t ordered a new ship yet.

What kind of modification is required, exactly? Does it need a significantly longer take-off run as compared to the Harrier?

Arresting gear, 75-90m cats, angled deck. Cavour might need a forward hull extension as well. Modifications for something smaller, like the proposed sea Gripen, would be less extreme needing only 60m cats and a smaller angled deck.