I've driven us into the world of semantics. Of course USN is interested in streamlining the pylons, but no one has a big enough bucket of money to flight test it. The original change was made early on in EMD, before flying qualities and weapons separation were done. I am saying that IF the decision was made to straighten them, the engineering/structure/provisioning is in place to do it. During EMD flight test, the first 7 jets, (E1-E5 and F1-F2) were delivered with straight pylons. They were toed out once USN chose the path Boeing was to to take to mitigate the potential for weapon collision during separation. Toe out was the least risk and cost option decided by the customer. The only change in the wing for pylon attachment between the EMD jets and production jets is where the electrical receptacle is located. That will drive some skin removal to relocate the penetration for the receptacle. Structure needs no changes to re locate the connector, just go back to the original fitting bracket. The forward pylon attach point needs no change. The aft attach is an external plate that would need to be changed out for a new one, the aft attachment points on the wing for that plate remain the same.
So, No we won't see pylon straightening, it seems we're in agreement there. But USN source telling you there needs redesign is not that correct. (USN would have to do an engineering design review) I am saying what they need is re work, but no redesign, because nothing in structure was changed to prevent the move back.
Pylon straightening keeps coming back like a bad penny because everyone hopes a new program will pay for it:), but they never do. :(
All I have to say on that is, a pylon on the wing is the RCS cost.