Jacko - ah the siren song of the FJ fan.... "What if?"
There are a thousand what-ifs but one would hope that we have in place intelligent people who could differentiate between the what-ifs and the what-wills. Unless we are conducting national suicide somewhere I can't really see how realistic it is defending ourselves from the latest X-Wing fighter. The only place we realistically risk getting our arses handed to us by "superior" jets is at Red Flag. Who knows perhaps, superior pilots in less awesome jets might actually do the handing - that's certainly never happened before has it...?
It's the constant desire to have the shiniest toy at the party that is crippling us. That desire is founded on the arrogant view that we are important enough on the global stage to warrant it. Canada and Australia seem to cope with F18s - are we that much more special them? Or do they just have a more realistic outlook on life?
NB. As I keep saying, this is all internet hot air. Typhoon is paid for and we're stuck with it and nothing anyone says will change that. One has to wonder about JSF though.....