The shortage of strike fighters due to the late arrival of the F35C into USN squadrons, is obviously a problem, how is the fleet going to cope with the late arrival of the F35C to replace the USMC Hornets that are part of carrier air wings? The cost of keeping the legacy Hornets airworthy must be getting quite a budgetary problem for the USMC, as well as being a logistics complication.
I am assuming that the numbers of F35Cs quoted for the USN by ORAC exclude the USMCs F35Cs?
I also assume that the IOC for the F35C will be declared by both the USN and USMC for the same variant, the USMC will not say try to go IOC with 3i software on their F35Cs whilst the Navy waits for 3F?