Is it the software
Picking up on Engines' helpful post, is the reason that launching off the ramp and SSL (Shipboard Short Landings) have not been tried yet a function of the UK Government's decision to change to the C and then back to the B?
What I am postulating is that when to achieve USMC IOC there was no need to tick the box that these two evolutions were possible with 2B software or 3i for that matter as the UK had switched to Cs that the subroutines that dealt with Ramps and SSL were not taken any further forward, if they were actually in the software? Let us hope that the required functionality is developed and appropriately tested in the road to 3F.
Could the reason that there will be no F35s, of any variety, flying to Europe this year be a function of two software problems? The ALICE software does not seem to be providing all the tools that it should at the moment and the 3i software cannot be said to have bedded down if 2B final build as I understand it has yet to be released. Developmental American aircraft with un signed off software displaying, in limited fashion, at European Air Show, could be considered an unacceptable risk by some of the organisers.