GR - couldn't agree more.....and if the catapult is put on, then Hawkeye has to be the answer!
Sadly, for what I understand, its inevitably more about cost of ownership rather than best performance. Although I've always been a fan of V22 - its still regraded as too expensive and still risky.
On the other hand the performance of the radar is reasonable, and with our expertise, "we" will get more out of it than many would expect.
In the end....all that investment and capability still needs the optimum protection....as the Falklands showed - the loss of a carrier would not only have been militarily difficult to cope with (and we had 3 in those days!) , but politically would probably ended the war for us.