FA 18 E (or F, if we can find some old navs somewhere) ticks all the boxes. Not a stop-gap buy, the jet could fill ALL our current fast jet roles well into the future. Stealth is expensive and sits on an exponential expense scale - diminishing returns and all that. The cutting edge technology, the same.
Completely agree Courtney. The SuperHornet with AESA provides everything we need minus the "first day of the war" capability, is well proven,can operate at sea and still has growth potential. A reason the USN are not in a rush for JSF.
We already have a cadre of pilots becoming qualified on it also.