> it's not like the enemy isn't going to notice the slowly hovering jet plane that's strafing them and shooting missiles at them
I thought the STOVL was designed to enable take off and landing without airfields and aircraft carriers. Are you sure the intent is that it will hover over the battlefield while attacking? Current planes seem to hit targets fine while flying at a much safer hundreds of miles/hour.
It's not going to hover, that would be insane (in fuel use if nothing else) but the USMC wants/needs a close air support platform. A jet that will fly sufficiently low and slow to attack ground targets effectively. Even when the friendly troops are only a few hundred meters away.
That's intrinsically different from the Air Force and Navy whose planes will spend their time closer to 30k feet then 3k feet.
Flight at low altitudes and speed requires fundamentally different characteristics then flight at high altitude and comparatively high speed.
> It's not going to hover, that would be insane (in fuel use if nothing else)
Really nerdy aside: it would also be insane with regards to hot gas ingestion. There would be a very high likelihood that the engine would take in the missile exhaust if launches happened in the semi-jet-borne or jet-borne regions.
The main platform for Marine STOVLs is pocket carriers; littoral assault carriers that lack cats and traps. Quite often they also carry amphibious landing craft as well.[0]
I thought the STOVL was designed to enable take off and landing without airfields and aircraft carriers. Are you sure the intent is that it will hover over the battlefield while attacking? Current planes seem to hit targets fine while flying at a much safer hundreds of miles/hour.