And a world of difference between keeping an aircraft in airworthy condition for airshows and in combat condition...
Plus:
1. The cost in manpower in restarting SHar ops is not insignificant - not only WAFUs and maintainers, but in support staff (PT/RTSA).
2. SHar retired before the MAA stood up. It will not be cheap to produce the MAA documentation and supporting evidence.
3. Industry will bleed you dry on start-up costs; these are fixed regardless of the number of ac you reactivate or the hours you fly. Add 1,2 and 3 up and the costs per flight hour become astronomic.
4. V/STOL deck handling is almost irrelevant now F35C is inbound. The deck cycle will be radically different.
5. SHar will not have recieved any form of DAS/Wpns/Avionics upgrades - now I accept it was advanced when OSD but how advanced is it now? What about legal requirements (Mode 5, TCAS, 8.33, FM immunity)? The cost of designing any/all of these into a small legacy fleet would be steep.
In sum, it's not as simple (or cheap) as dusting off the deck-handling SHars and going flying.....It's gone, we can't afford it. Best solution would be to buy/lease a Sqn of Bugs and ask the USN very nicely if we could embark pilots/deck handlers with them and operate the ac as part of the USN virtual fleet - cutting out the RTSA/QQ/MAA/PT costs and delays whilst gaining relevant experience.