Originally Posted by
Glaaar
Because the Marines want to be a replacement Air Force for the Nuclear Navy
No, they don't. That is a complete misread of the USMC mission statement. The question we were faced with, doctrinally, was the "expeditionary" deployment of Harriers (and later JSF?) to "austere fields" as a concept that was or wasn't even valid. Having a fast jet detachment / VSTOL/STOVL with the MEU/ARG is a concept that was alive and well even when we had 13 carriers.
There is no EW and no kind of "numbers" in the ARG to handle the capability of a CVN.