BEagle
POI
1) Saab have done some work on a Sea Gripen, capable of being operated from short STOBAR carriers. (NB the basic aircraft has a formidable short landing/road strip capability, 'cos it's Swedish and has to).
2) UK plc could buy between 3 and 4 Gripens for the cost it will be paying for one JSF...... (c.£70m each, a far cry from the $38 m price which was supposed to be guaranteed for the Naval JSF!). Even EF is cheaper (£61 m incl. all R&D, £42 m unit production cost - which is what we'd pay for aircraft above and beyond the 232 on order).
3) UK plc would have guaranteed workshare, not just the right to bid for it (against local companies in pork-barreling US States).
4) The UK could guarantee getting the full-standard, top-of-the range model of Gripen.
5) Gripen's available and working now, with datalink, and all the other bells and whistles that are actually needed for Post Cold War operations.
6) Drawbacks? Sure, plenty, chiefly that it's single-engined. But hold on, isn't.......