I very much look forward to hearing where the extra people are coming from and how the pension reform coupled with 200 - 300 days of the year away from the wall is going to retain them. Sounds like a brilliant plan.
glojo - LSO progress is being made if not exactly 'in hand'.
Everyone will have their own opinion on which is closer to F-35B and QEC, a CVN deck or a USMC VSTOL deck. Given the complete change in vertical thrust philosophy and ease of handling one could argue that pilots' motor skills are irrelevant either way. As the deck will be big on QEC perhaps the deck choreography needs to be learnt on a CVN not a Wasp class. Then again I'm sure there is a counter argument that my long deceased grandmother could manage a deck the size of QEC with only a handful of jets on it!
Carrier strike is what we are buying the jet for which will be more akin to USN ops than USMC. But again, we could debate that into the night as well.
Long and the short of it is we've made a complete pig's ear of this so clarity of thought is no longer a privelege we enjoy. It's a goat.