At the end of the day, none of this will change the F-35 at this stage.
Indeed not. There was an opportunity to change when the B was put on probation, which I thought had effectively decoupled it from the other two versions. Reading more here of the technical complexities of STVOL, in a supersonic format to boot, it seems that developing this version separately from the A & C has a lot of merit. Admittedly the original concept of high commonality between all the versions would have been knocked sideways, but the whole programme is being knocked in every direction (barring fast-forward) anyway so what the heck?
Maybe the B would have to lose some Lo capability and perhaps even it's supersonic capability too, but that must be pretty limited already. Bit of a bugger that STOVL requirements had already complicated the conventional variants, but we are where we are.
Lowe Flieger is a bear of very limited technical brain, so if this is either hokum, or has already been commented by someone with greater knowledge, apologies for the interruption. And to Mr Farley, thank you for a very clear, concise explanation which even I could follow.