LO: spot on, as usual. If Hagel gets confirmed (and I think he will - personally, I think he'd do a good job), then Dave-B is (correctly) in deep smelly stuff.
From a narrow US focus (which is, largely speaking, Hagel's putative job), it's just really hard to see how USMC justifies Dave-B from a ConOps perspective. What is the mission set that demands:
- All aspect stealth
- Supersonic (dash, anyway)
- FOB'd STOVL
.. and when the USN wouldn't send a CVN BG?
I suppose it is (just) possible, but so unlikely that compared with the cost pressures elsewhere you'd never choose it. So, bin Dave-B, tell the USMC to suck it up, and fly Dave-C (
which they're already getting) from the big deck CVNs - and keep the V-22s. V-22 seems to me to be much more important to the USMC than Dave-B.
So, cancellation of Dave-B would increase pressure on "Dave" Cameron... so, El PM go for the one named after you: Dave-C.
S41