I really do hope that the Fleet Air Arm receives the F-35B, but quite when, I hesitate to guess...
What can the RAF anticipate?
Leased A330s, privatised training, hopefully A400M and perhaps the odd Nimrod MRA4 sometime next decade.
But lots of 'brand awareness' logos and sundry marketing tat, no doubt.
OK - you win
!
But as regards the GR9, apart from operating from the little carriers of today, it doesn't seem to offer a huge improvment over the Scimitar of some 45 years ago. Both multi-role mud-moving and recce (except that the Scimitar had 4 mighty 30mm radar-ranged Adens), both high subsonic (except that the Scimitar was capable of M0.95 at 36000 ft and had a 50000 ft ceiling), both capable bomb trucks capable of carrying over 8000 lb of bombs - neither have AI radar and the Scimitar would have had AIM-9 if it hadn't been phased out.
Hopefully F-35B (shame the carriers aren't big enough for the F-35C) will be rather more cutting edge than the Harrier now is.
But phasing out the SHAR 2 was a travesty.