Just a question here - the Typhoon and New Carrier bid processes must have been mostly concurrent. How much coordination and mutual influencing was there between the specification of the two programmes?
It seems to me that we have ended up with two programmes which are threatened with cuts because of their costs, and have non-optimised flexibility and inter-operability between the two aircraft types.
Would not a single joint RAF/RN Rafaele strike force not have been simpler and cheaper, giving savings in aircrew and programme costs, also with the advantage of better interoperability with French navy? I have read that Rafaele is possibly a more ground-attack oriented multi-role aircraft than Typhoon too.
I'm not pretending that I know the answer and am not knocking Typhoon in any way (excellent at what it was designed for) - I'm just interested to know whether the above scenario was fully studied and then discounted? Or did inter-service fighting end play a part in the situation we are now in?