The reason I asked was, in the present (and future) climate of defence expenditure scrutiny, why would the USAF want (or more to the point NEED) hundreds of F-35s when the USMC (Air) would, no doubt be the ones providing the majority of CAS?
Wigan
A very reasonable question. My GUESS is that thanks to everything from cruise missiles to UCAVs developing apace and taking over traditional manned aircraft roles, then in perhaps 20 years time after the first couple of days the only role that US manned aircraft will carry out in a hostile and fluid situation will be CAS.
Now if you wore a USAF uniform would you not want to have aircraft that could do that job at least as effectively as the USMC ??.... inter service rivalry is so often destructive but perhaps not in this case.
JF