Fox,
I sincerely hope you win your bet and the Super Hornet is selected, keeping the Boeing production line open. The USN will need more E/Fs given the F-35 state of affairs. I was in the aerospace business starting in 1961, retiring in 2000, but then doing some consulting work. Other than the F-111 fiasco (McNamara's Folly), there has never been another military program botched as badly as this F-35 program, involving nearly every facet of airplane in total, doing so at unbelievable expense to taxpayers and other defense programs. I do like Col. Pietrucha's solutions. Then, there is that famous song with the line
"Know When To Hold Em and Know When To Fold Em".
