The problem as far as I can tell (and I have only done casual research on this) was the F-35B was seriously overweight back in 2003/4, this meant it would have difficulty operating off the CVF’s and did not quite have the desired combat radius. They have sorted the problem now, but I believe one of the sacrifices was the size of the internal weapons bay.

http://navy-matters.beedall.com/jsf.htm

Right now there’s five issues

1) Range and payload. Going STOVL results in a 25% decrease in range and a 17% reduction in payload including reduced carriage on the external middle pylons. In addition, the UK is not buying JDAM or SDB severely limiting their internal only missions to 500lb paveways.

2) Reliability. Can the extremely complex lift fan system survive deployments and be maintained by people in their late teens or early 20s. You don’t have aeronautical engineers in the squadrons. All the “advantages” to STOVL go out the window if the aircraft is sitting in the hanger and if there’s a problem in the lift fan, rear nozzle, or associated doors, the chances of being able to recover the aircraft aboard ship could be very slim.

3) AEW Searchwater, especially deployed on slow helicopters with low altitude limts. may be adequate for a small Harrier carrier, but can it be up to the task for the attention a 65,000 ton ship with up to three squadrons of very low observable fighters will receive.

4) Cost both in airframe/component costs and maintenance of the lift fan system.

5) The Royal Air Force. They are as much a threat to Naval aviation as any enemy. They will do their best to keep these aircraft off ship if they have any involvement.

Its a lot more pronounced on JCI.

i think it would be possible to design a small ski jump for the harriers/F-35Bs that would only take away one helo spot. maybe it wouldn’t be a full 12 degree ramp like on the ark royal, but even a smaller 6 degree ramp could offer serious take-off advantages for the fixed wing aircraft that are deployed on these ships.

But serious disadvantages for the ship’s missions which is delivering Marines tot he battlefield.

the US military is the only one in the world that regularly deploys fixed wing aircraft on non-CATOBAR/non-ski-jump equipped flat-tops.

No, we’re the only one to deploy fixed wing CAS aircraft to our amphibious assault ships.

The British, Spanish, Italian, and Indian (who are going away from STOVL BTW) Harriers have a primary role of defending the escort fleet against bomber attack.

that said, i still think politics is at play to a certain degree in that the US navy does not want to demonstrate the effectiveness of a smaller ski-jump/STOVL carrier for fear that it could somehow threaten their precious CATOBAR beasts.

Yes we can show them how awesome it is to spend the same amount of money on an aircraft with 70% of the capability and a AEW&C helicopter which requires 3 of them to do the same job as a Hawkeye.