Jacko, no one doubts that AD of the homeland is important, but I contend that that can be achieved with Carrier capable assets that can be land or carrier based, depending on the threat at the time. Thus the AD of the UK culd be achieved with, say 6 quadron of F/A-18 E/F or Rafale etc if that is where the greatest need is, but some of those same aircraft could be deployed to sea if we had overseas commitments/ dependencies/ events that needed our geater attention. Typhoon cannot.
For the same reason, all SH & AH should be marinised.
The UK cannot afford to have specialised, single domain assets any more; it needs to have assets that it can deploy to concentrate power where the effect is most greatly needed.
Flexibility s the key to air (& sea) power.