SAS - concur, but the US is keeping the peace on a global scale, whereas the Brit/French level of ambition is much lower. We know our place (sort of!).
JTIDS - absolutely!
But seriously, since the politicos want the global influence (independent of the US) the only way to achieve it is to drive the airfield (and all the other stuff) to the crisis. That is the salient justification for the CVF. If someone comes up with a better way to achieve the desired effects over an adversary then you can bet we'll go that way instead.
We need to bear in mind that the Brits cannot even conceive of doing anything major without US top cover - and we all know they don't need the hardware, just the political support. What we're talking about here is a Sierra Leone-plus style op within our OC.