I too would be surprised if the USN committed to automatic landing for its carrier aircraft, even if the conservatives don't succeed in killing UCAS-D and the program demonstrates autoland successfully.
But it's a pity, because the USN spends a lot of money replacing aircraft that have been flogged to death practicing carrier landings - the lifetime of a Super Hornet seems to be about 17 years, with the type headed for a OSD in 2030 (is that why the export market's not excited?), which doesn't compare too well with the EPAF F-16AMs.
I'd never be too surprised if France, or India, were the first to go autoland for their carrier operations.