Time to stick a fork in a common misnomer. The USMC needs the F-35. UPDATE:

Note:  This post was prompted by this comment from Lane...

Essentially what the USN "knows" is that instead of being on a procurement holiday like the USAF and USMC it has actually been continually purchasing fighter planes the past couple decades. Thus the majority of it's fighter aircraft do not require immediate replacement. The USN has options and can live without the F-35C. Certainly the F-35C brings more capability to the table than continued purchases of F/A-18's but it also brings far greater operating costs, as NAVAIR leaked some time ago, and thus the trade offs in acquiring the F-35C are not cut and dried compared to other customers.

This is so far from the truth it hurts.

The USMC bought British Harriers.
via DefenseTech.

Yup, you read that correctly. With the help of spare parts scavenged from Britain’s old GR9 Harriers that the Marine Corps just bought from the UK, the Marines could keep their AV-8B Harrier jump jets flying until 2030. Yes, the Harriers could serve alongside, F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers, and whatever jet is selected as the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier-Launched Surveillance and Strike jet. Remember, the F-35B short-takeoff and vertical landing version of the JSF was originally supposed to start replacing the Marines’ Harriers and F/A-18 Hornets by oh about now. You all know what’s happened to that plan. The AV-8B entered service with the Marines in the mid-1980s.
Naval Air Systems Command has done a structural analysis of the Harriers’ airframes and concluded that the jets will be good, with plenty of maintenance, to fly through 2030, said Rear Adm. Donald Gaddis, the Navy’s program executive officer for tactical aviation during the Navy League’s annual Sea, Air, Space conference in National Harbor, Md.

This takes care of the issue with getting fast jets to the MEUs.  It also takes care of Marine Corps ground support missions.  We have planes available that are fully STOVL that can be available until 2030 at least.  And when NAVAIR says that, you can pretty much bank on it.  That gives us another 16 years that we can develop a viable STOVL replacement.  If we follow the NAVY lead and it relies on IRST and doesn't have to be biased toward stealth operations then a supersonic, STOVL airframe, loaded down with long range IRST missiles can be the war winning platform for our MEU's in the pacific.

F/A-18 offered at bargain price. 
via CBC

The Super Hornet currently sells for about $55 million US apiece; the Pentagon expects the F-35 to cost twice as much — about $110 million. But only 20 per cent of the cost of owning a fighter fleet is the actual sticker price of the planes. Eighty per cent is the operating cost — what it takes to keep them flying. That means everything from pilots and fuel to maintenance and spares.

For the cost of replacing half the projected F-35's with Super Hornets I can get everyone of the MPCs, ACVs, JLTVs and CH-53Ks that we could hope for and still have money left over to buy some other much needed gear.  And that's if the 110 million dollar price tag actually flows to the Marine Corps buy and not to the foreign customers that come to the program later.

I posted this to say one thing.

We can wait and get a Super Harrier from scratch that does everything we need.

We can do the jamming mission by buying Growlers.

We can do our carrier mission by buying Super Hornets.

The only reason why we're stuck to the F-35 is because we insist on being stuck.

An airplane does not make the Marine Corps.  The Infantry does.  Every Marine is an Infantryman, not a technician working on a flight line.  So why are we cutting Infantry Battalions instead of biting the bullet, marching up to the Pentagon and telling the powers that be that one airplane will not gobble up the Marine Corps?

UPDATE:
Somehow, we all missed it.  The AV-8B is already in the process of replacing two seat F/A-18D's.  This from Defense Tech.

Britain has agreed to sell all of its 74 decommissioned Harrier jump jets, along with engines and spare parts, to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps — a move expected to help the Marines operate Harriers into the mid-2020s and provide extra planes to replace aging two-seat F-18D Hornet strike fighters.

Somehow in the rush of the news that the Marines were getting extra Harriers, buried was the fact that they would not only provide a buffer for the Harrier but a replacement for older Hornets. 

Side Note:  One thing keeps popping up that causes concern.  Operating costs.  If we're having to swallow a huge bill to buy the airplane and then have to pay crazy costs to keep it running then what the fuck over?  If upkeep becomes prohibitive then this should be an automatic no-go.  The EFV was canceled for less issues than the F-35 has.  Enough time has passed where there should be no more questions about this airplane.  Either its going to work or it isn't.  I cannot remember a program that has been allowed to drag on this long.