It wasn't all that long ago (ok perhaps a few years!) that many self professed 'defence gurus' used pprune to complain that the UK acquiring apache was a total waste of money and a cold war type asset that had no role in the modern wargame. I would assume these armchair experts are now relieved of the anonimity of such forums.
My point is that any planned equipment project does not come to fruition for so many years that it is impossible to say for certain what UK plc will be requiring of its military when the goods are actually delivered. Do the new carriers provide flexibilty to deal with the next unimaginable wargame? Does JSF? Does Typhoon?
Who would have imagined 5 years ago that the traditionally very maritime ASaC Sea King community would be contemplating deploying to sandy places to provide overland strategic effect?
I'm not saying I have the answers but I think we all have to be careful of dismissing future projects on the basis of current requirements. My personal view is that we have to accept that the coffers are almost empty and that buying known capability off the shelf must be more cost effective than trying to remain at the forefront of the defence industry by investing in the design and development side of things when we dont have the luxury of being able to throw money at it til it works.