I can see haw the C model spending its life at sea will incur a maintenance penalty, but if you ditch the C and keep the Bs at sea for their whole life instead, why does the same not apply to them?
Yes, it does. I hear fresh water wash will be less of a problem when steam isn't used on the cats.
Gresham says he is an advocate of the F-35, but believes the Navy can have a completely capable version by modifying the B-model that is now being tested by the Marine Corps.
He misses the point of cat and trap air ops, methinks.
One is the effect of hot and high-velocity outwash on aircraft handling and operations near the landing spot. CV ops seem to make full-time use of all the available area, right to the edge of the landing zone.
Yes.
The other is that the 550 foot (clean TOW) take-off roll of the B is longer than the cat stroke, which may mean that the JBDs are in the wrong place.
I'd tend to agree, and good point.