Widger,
Have you any idea what the GR7s are doing in Afghanistan right now?!!! CVF will be cock all use for GCAS and the reaction times required in HERRICK.
I'm a great supporter of CVF and, overall, I too think the F-35C variant will be the best option given that it has a respectably short take off run. However, lets be realistic about what a carrier can provide in many scenarios.
The USN regularly used land bases for much of the Afghan campaign with the aircraft flying off at the start of the day and FOBing several times before coming home to mother. So the comments regarding STOVL are still potentially valid.
Interesting to note that the RAN are set to procure some LPDs. I suspect they'll be closely examining the value of some of their F-35s being B models to enable deck ops.