BS once again. As pictured below the Tomcat was designed as a fleet air defender/bomb hauler from the get go; carrying up to 18 Mk82s if desired. That's one of the major reason why the Marine Corps reluctantly agreed to buy 70 of them, not to help keep the per plane cost down as the Navy wanted. The Navy chose not to utilize the strike capability for a couple of reasons. First they'd have to explain to congress why their expensive FAD platform was being used to haul bombs when they already had much cheaper A-6s, A-7s and F-4s doing that and until it was clear that the Intruder was indeed dead and the Hornet demonstrated that it did not have adequate range for long range strike there was no need.
