Glojo possibly another STOVL aircraft/UAV. I don't see why not? You have the US Marines, Italy, Spain (just about), Thailand (not that they ever use them) and India that operate STOVL right now (though to be fair India are going STOBAR for their replacement carrier and god knows what for the two follow ons). The South Koreans, Japanese and Aussies all have/are building large amphib LHA/LHD flat decks. Turkey are also in the design stage of a large amphib LHA/LHD. Crucially three of those countries are part of the JSF consortia buys may occur in the same way that an A buy may happen for us when Typhoon starts to go out of service in the 2030s to meet our obligation to buy a 148 odd JSF.
The purchase numbers for the B and C are I believe currently roughly the same and initially the USMC were hoping to not buy any C at all and just operate their B's off of the CVN's. But the potential market for the B seems stronger to me, based on all of the naval willy waving going on. The F18/F16 have been going since what the mid 70's in various forms so since the F35 is the replacement for them I think the B's shelf life should be pretty decent.
Last edited by eaglemmoomin; 4th Dec 2012 at 16:15.