Cross decking.
The idea that if the allies all operate the same aircraft then we can operate off each others aircraft carriers.
The idea was born with the British and French. They've been going through massive defense cuts longer than we have and one of the proposals was to operate mixed fleets of aircraft off each others boats.
At one time it had the Brits buying Rafales...this proved to be cost prohibitive and then the idea was to buy Super Hornets. I personally believed that this led to the first switch that the Brits did to the F-35C. Cats and traps and this time the idea was that they would team with the USN and operate off US carriers and we off their boats.
Flash forward and now that they're back buying F-35Bs they're suddenly all gung ho to operate off our amphibious assault ships.
Its a joke.
Its a lie.
Its a useless capability.
And its all for show.
First the Brits won't buy (even if they stick to plan) enough F-35's to send any over to US ships. Next British and American ships operate together only in a few places. The US is shifting to the Pacific and the Brits don't have a large presence there.
The only cross decking that will happen is what we're already doing. Refueling and supplying their ships at sea and maybe doing publicity shots.
A combat capability? Not even close.
