I would be interested in seeing additional sources that support the theory that political machinations, not practical concerns, decided how many pilots a modern warship requires.

The Apache Attack Helicopter is renowned for being especially difficult to fly [1], and I wonder if Navy wished to avoid having a similarly single, not-so-easily-replaced bottleneck.

[1] https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/hardest-to-fly-8713...