This situation certainly illustrates why the USN wants to retain their Super Hornets well into the 2040s, and suggests that they've known that the F-35 is bit of a pig all along. And by adopting some - if not all - of the proposed Advanced Super Hornet upgrades, you can safely reduce F-35C procurement - and save some money in the process.
The only winner in this fiasco is the USMC, who will certainly get a huge upgrade in performance (at great expense, but not as much as it could have been if it were not a joint development program) over their AV-8Bs. As for those who advocate ditching big deck carriers for LHAs with F-35Bs, a perfect illustration why not to do that.
Last edited by Maus92; 2nd Jul 2015 at 13:40.