A A Gruntpuddock asked
As a civilian, I don't really see why we need the F35.
Well, given that the Torygraph journalist writing drivel such as
"It is so fast that it could comfortably escape from any enemy missile fired at it "
seems to be either:
(a) volunteering to play chicken with an SA-20 / SA-21 in some live fire tests,
(b) uninformed to a reasonably terrifying level or
(c) Lewis Page in disguise*
I can understand why you'd be confused over purchasing a jet that will probably end up costing about £100m a copy and is likely to come in tiny numbers as a result.
The essential point is that if the UK wants to be able to have a survivable man/woman-in-the-loop conventional precision deep-strike / ISTAR capability in the 2020s against the proliferation of modern SAMs and advanced AAMs supported by an integrated air defence system, then stealth is probably essential.
In essence, this is the policy question: if we don't want to do first-night-of-the-war manned heavy lifting with the USAF/USN and other allies, then we needn't buy the JSF; we could procure a late 4th gen bomb truck to replace GR4s when we finally accept that they are beyond economic repair - which could be mid-2020s. The USAF has publicly accepted that it will be using a combination of stealth and non-stealth platforms for years to come (e.g. upgraded F-15Cs and F-15Es) and the USN has spent lots of cash on F-18E/F/G, so there will be a continuing role for 4th gen platforms, but not against the hardest targets with unattrited air defences on day one.
So in essence, the JSF question is actually all about national ambition - much like the rest of the difficult questions in SDSR.
S41
*On reflection, (c) is probably covered by (b)