” “The fact is that USN politics will not allow the buy of a USAF aircraft, that is why the USN will not get a F-22N.””
Politics had nothing to do with it. Cost and bad experience did. The Navy had its own expensive Advanced Tactical Aircraft program to pay for, and they simply didn’t think they could afford both ATA’s and navalized F-22’s.
Second, the last time the Navy had an aircraft that was adopted from an Air Force variant, it was a horrible experience. I’m talking about the infamously bad F-111b. The Navy basically went before Congress and said they’d refuse to take the airplane, even if Congress appropriated money for it. It was simply impossible to take a medium bomber and turn it into a fighter. The money quote: “Sir, all the thrust in Christiandom wont make that airplane a fighter”.
As a result, the Navy developed the now-classic F-14 Tomcat instead.
And now we have the Joint Strike Fighter, and maybe....just maybe, it might work, because of advances in technology. But I bet some old hands are still watching it cautiously.
You can generally turn a Navy airplane into a great Air Force airplane. The Fury morphed into the F-86 Sabre, the F-4 was judged so superior to anything the Air Force was flying that it eventually took up 16 of the Air Force’s 24 fighter wings. When USAF became short on attack capability in the late 60’s, they adopted the Navy’s A-7. The B-66 Destroyer was simply a slightly modified Navy A-3 Skywarrior.
Name one front line Air Force bird that was adopted successfully by the Navy? Offhand, I can’t think of any.