Originally Posted by
Easy Street
To this landlubber, the proportion of naval aviators' flying time spent developing and maintaining competence in arrested landings is ridiculous. {snip rant}
One F35C might turn out to be a relatively small price to pay when set against all the CQ flying that automation could save over the aircraft's service career.
I guess you called it yourself in the opening of your post: landlubbers tend to lack a clue.
I ran into similar uninformed opinions among the USAF.
I am not sure if you are aware of this, but the F-18 has had a "let HAL fly it" feature for well over 20 years.
That does not offer any excuse to ignore both proficiency and fundamental skills.
Likewise with instrument flying.