OK so exactly how long is the work up? The USN Air Wings don't spend their entire lives on board, they spend extended periods land based so what does the work-up involve? I know they do a lot of it en route to wherever they are going, but that just emphasise that carriers take quite a while to get anywhere, unless you are lucky or have a crystal ball, which the RN don't like to talk about.
JFH was, quite rightly focussed on Afghan. They could of course have done less of that in order to be "fully day/night quald" on the carrier, which would have pleased the RN but perhaps not the right thing for defence. A good example of why Maritime/Land agnostic Air power is a good thing!
Just to reiterate my position - JSF should be jointly manned and run and we should have at least 1 carrier (pref 2). This is the view of the majority of the RAF, we dont prescribe to the "only we can do it, you just don't understand" view that the RN is peddling.