Magic Carpet and the skills carrier pilots need

Do automated landing aids and retirement of the T-45 weaken US Navy carrier qualification?

No; automation can take over a difficult but repeatable landing task and free expensive pilots to concentrate on skills that machines cannot perform.

Landing assistance need not weaken carrier qualification. A difficult recovery procedure can consume substantial training even when a machine can perform much of the task. The proposed benefit is to redirect an expensively trained pilot's attention toward combat skills that still require human judgment. British rolling landings provide a separate comparison: the F-35B can use its own capabilities to stop aboard the carrier. Easier recovery therefore does not, by itself, establish a decline in combat ability.