The House Armed Services Committee issued supported reservations concerning the US Navy's ability to carry out the required missions in the near future, due to the lack of autonomy of the F-35C.
Indeed, the Lockheed plane, to maintain the benefit of its stealth, cannot carry additional tanks and must make do with its weapons in the hold. However, in this configuration, the range of action of the device is much lower than the 1200 miles claimed by the manufacturer.
The absence of stealth tankers would therefore force the carrier group to expose itself to adverse attacks, a missile like the Chinese DF-21, specially designed to attack US aircraft carriers, reaching 900 nautical miles.
The US Navy has always been reserved when it comes to the F-35C, an aircraft that was imposed on it more than it chose it. Firstly, the single-engine configuration had been abandoned by the US Navy since the A-7 Corsair II, an aircraft certainly efficient, but which had a much higher accident rate than its contemporaries, the F-14, the A6 or the S-3 Vikings. In addition, the F-35C is only offered in a single-pilot version, whereas the US Navy had developed a tradition of crewed flight since the F-4, particularly for its aircraft intended for aerial combat. Finally, the US Navy has always considered that the Lockheed aircraft had too limited an operational range. This is why the US Navy General Staff fought tooth and nail to maintain the A/F-18 E/F Super Hornet manufacturing lines, and regularly improved it.
It is also for these reasons that the US Navy regularly publishes studies aimed at developing a new aircraft intended to take over from the F-18 while respecting the constraints of air-maritime combat.
Note that the F-35C is the only US Navy combat aircraft not to have been specifically designed for this use. On the other hand, on several occasions, US Navy aircraft were used by air forces, including the US Air Force, because they were superior to their land-based counterparts. This was the case of the F-4 Phantom, the A-7 Corsair II, the F-18 Hornet but also the A-4 Skyhawk or the F-14 Tomcat.