With cuts like these coming down the track will the B or C survive?
Absent a major new show-stopper, the answer is 'Yes'. The project is now too big for the US to allow it to fail. From afar, it looks as if the sequester is likely to be avoided once the presidential election is out of the way. It arose because Democrats and Republicans would not give political ground to the other and so wider budget cuts could not be agreed. I doubt either party really want to emasculate their military and so a 'fix' will be found before the sequester bites. However, our US contributors are closer to the politics than I am so maybe they can comment with more authority.
...look what it [F35] is doing to the Dutch Air Force...
I was talking with an ex Dutch Air force F16 pilot this week. He was unimpressed with F35 and felt it was the ego of top brass that were behind it. He felt upgraded F16's would be a more appropriate option, and more of them too. Hardly a representative cross section of opinion but it does demonstrate a problem for smaller military forces where they will have only a few ten's of F35s. The numbers have developed that way because costs have spiralled (F35 was meant to be the affordable, second tier jet to back up the F22) and some operators must be at minimum effective numbers, or even below that, whatever their 'official' purchase requirement may be. Presumably the hope is that the numbers will be built up over time as the economy improves.