LO,
Thanks for coming back.
The discussion over time spent in 'STOVL mode' is always going to be an exercise in prediction, as it rests on a number of assumptions about how many aircraft are shore based, how many afloat on what platforms. I'd suspect that for some nations, STOVL ops may comprise a bigger percentage. I'd also suspect that the USMC are looking very hard at deployed short field ops.
The key thing from the USMC aviation point of view is that you need to have STOVL to get on to the boat and to the war in the first place. And for the UK and the RN, STOVL is our only affordable way of getting these aircraft to sea. Given that, percentages of any notional total are less important.
You make a very good point about the design trade offs in the LHD, LHA(R) and follow on ships. The thing to appreciate is that ship design is always an exercise in compromise, and sometimes aviation capabilities have to take their share of compromise. In the case if the USMC, it's handy to remember that everything (and I mean everything) is built around getting Marines ashore and fighting. It's possible that the two America class LHA(R)s will end up being mainly used for aviation basing and personnel transport, plus possibly V-22 assault ops. Like I said earlier, the only certainty is that the USMC will seek to make the best possible use of the aircraft it has, and it has been planning the changes for some time.
LO maintenance - please carry on being sceptical. We all certainly were at Fort Worth. (We had some excellent ex FAA maintainers on our team who were incredibly experienced and not easy to convince on anything). The fact is that stealth technology has shown steady progress from the F-117, through B-2 to F-22. F-35 is nearly 20 years on from the Raptor. There's a clue in the way that the panel joins on F-35 look very different to F-22, that may indicate that the 35 is not aiming for the lowest levels of signature. (I say 'may' as I'm not read into that stuff).
I don't, for one minute, believe that all will be sweetness and light. I don't think getting F-35B to the fight will be easy. But delivering high performance fixed wing naval aviation is never easy. It never was. It takes good people, well trained as a team on the ship, to do it. That's what the USMC does, and so did the FAA. The FAA will, given the time and the resources, do it again.
Best regards as ever to all
Engines