Erm, not to sure about CirrusF's comment - possibly a bit lacking in understanding of airpower theory...
It's all very well having lots of mud-movers if there is no air threat, and we have the luxury of that situation in Iraq and Afghanistan at the moment. But one day in the not too distant future we might have to go to war in a place where that is not the case. What do we do if we end up having to fight where the opposition has something useful like a bunch of SU-27s, SU-30s or similar? In this type of situation it would not take long for everyone to be saying "thank goodness we bought Typhoon."
Yes it's introduction to service has been long and protracted, and yes it is taking a while to get the A/G capability in place, but we will eventually end up with an aircraft that can perform both roles really quite well.
My thinking is don't ever relegate Air Defence to second place, because although it is not needed much at the moment, one day it might be. It's a bit like a reserve parachute; you hope you will never need it but if you do you will be absolutely stuffed without it....
