Possibility small STOVL carrier USN/USMC

Corsair1963, there's two arguments you're making here as far as I can see:

1) Each MEU needs more air support, and hence the need for something bigger than an LHA. Fine. That's one argument but again one which needs to be substantiated as to why 2,200 marines need 40 F-35s instead of 20 F-35s to provide close support. And if the Marines are getting into such a large entanglement that they need so much air support, what would the USN be doing meanwhile? A single MEU is not a unit designed to go fight wars on its own independently.

2) Sending in carriers close to littorals is dangerous. Which is of course why no one would do so. But that is also a problem not solved by having a bigger Marine carrier since the same shortcomings apply to them. That is a problem solved by either eliminating the enemy threat (which the USN can do better), or of designing a radically more survivable min-carrier (which is highly unrealistic).

The USS Makin Island ARG demonstrating the versatility much valued by Theater Commanders. The tip of the spear gets pointier when Gators deploy the Bee jets.

https://news.usni.org/2017/01/26/carrie ... more-23416

The Navy is not "buying" the SH, Congress keeps giving them some on top of their budget allocation.

That's why it's an "unfunded" request.

The Navy wants more superhornets, its OSD that pushed back on that. It's not accurate to say the Navy doesn't want them but Congress keeps funding them.

That doesn't mean they don't want F35c, just about every high ranking official in the Navy has said they need F35. But they've also said they need more superhornets and keep delaying purchases of C's. After IOC I suspect F35C purchases will start to ramp up, and I'll be surprised if they don't wind up buying more than the program of record (barring another Great Recession). But I don't think the Navy will order more than about 20 a year because of budget reasons, so it will stretch out over a long period of time.