The vexed issues:
The key issue is that the threat, and in particular the SAM threat is now ridiculous - in terms of both spec and proliferation. To the point that Air Power supporters such as ourselves now need to be very careful trotting our tired phrases such as ‘the bomber will always get through’ (Will it?) ‘speed, height, reach’ (not enough, not enough, not enough) and ‘ubiquity of air power’ (hoping the opposition didn’t remove the ubiquity with a trip to the SA-XX Shop).
That leaves the Typhoon(and aircraft like it) unable to operate in high end MEZ/ JEZ but massively over spec for ‘day job’ of dropping PW4. (Although I have heard the integration makes it more of a challenge).
Gen 4 plus 5 force mix is indeed lethal. My last Flag was in one of the better (US) Gen 4 platforms and the team works. Can’t speak for Typhoon with legacy mech scan and low end data link...sounds like they do fine against T38😉. The Nevada SAM threat was however a bit 90s and noughties...
F-35 exportable and cheaper than F-22 but without the performance and weapon carriage. Still too expensive for entirety of force mix - and despite enormous work share for the UK still not British.
Harrier and similar not a patch on Typhoon in A-A, (by a country mile or two) and with upgrades the Typhoon should be toting Stormshadow and Brimstone - so it’s an expensive way of killing Hilux etc but can do it (or should soon) and bunker bust etc too.
Another type = another base, another logs tail, another DE&S PT etc etc
So we’ve actually got (once Typhoon A-S is set and F-35 is ready) middle and high end covered respectively. The argument should probably be - when sculpting the next generation - whether middle is VFM compared to low.
Break, break new subject. Optionally manned? Utterly pointless in my opinion. It’ll hamstrung the design for no benefit whatsoever.