Hmm. Maybe I was just thinking too hard about Clint Eastwood at that moment.
I’m not entirely sure that Britain’s actions here are based on sensible military thinking. We’re committed to the Eurofighter/Typhoon project for the RAF, and I’m not sure that we could afford the JSF if it is that high-tech/LO. This sounds more like Tony Blair keeping GW sweet and working on the “special relationship”; he likes to keep his options open, so playing with both Europe and the US would be entirely in character, IMHO.
When is the JSF slated for service? Five, ten, twenty years?