F-35C and the US Navy. It has no real role.

Check out this passage from National Defense...

“There will be some challenges integrating the F-35 on the carrier. Most have been identified,” he says. A carrier air wing typically has anywhere from 44 to 54 fighter jets. The Navy expects that for the foreseeable future, most of the fighters in the air wing will be Super Hornets, and that the F-35C will have a niche role as an airborne intelligence nerve center.

The F-35C will be predominantly an “information collector and distributor in the air wing,” says Burks. As the Navy’s only “stealth” aircraft that can fly undetected by radar, it will be prepared to “go alone into highly contested areas,” he adds. But most of the time it will serve as the hub of a “network centric” air wing.

“It may not matter what weapon we have on board,” Burks says. F-35 pilots will pass information over the network that would allow other aircraft to engage targets. “I may pull the trigger in the cockpit but the weapon may come from a different platform,” he explains.

Everyday its becoming more clear why the US Navy wants out of the F-35 program.

They simply don't have a use for it.

It will serve virtually no role in the carrier air wing.

It will serve as an airborne ISR node and that role can BETTER be performed by a fully rationalized X-47.  Additionally the command and control that we're talking about will better be performed by Navy or Air Force AWACS.

The endgame for the Navy is clear.  They'll stick with the program as long as they have to....while pushing procurement to the right as much as possible and while they continue to work on the X-47 and the 6th gen fighter, they'll play nice with the USAF and Marines.

When its realized that the F-35 costs too damn much they'll punch out of the program and never look back.

Brilliant.