Saying that USMC exchanges are irrelevant is slightly muddying; big navy experience is certainly better if you're going to be a big navy yourself however early on, the reality of CEPP for the UK will be more akin to the MEU because we don't have the gear in size or capability to be like big daddy warbucks USN. If we get our economy and grow our military might somewhat in the future then our QEC decks have the potential to operate at the scale of a Nimitz but let us not delude ourselves into thinking that's what it will be like for a while.
I take your point however;
VSTOL in F35 is meant to be so disimilar from Harrier ops, building VSTOL experience in an AV8 is, in my opinion, outweighed by the benefits of operating a 4.5 Gen platform and all that involves, in a maritime environment.
a true statement is a true statement. It wasn't meant to enflame and I'm sorry if I did - I was merely talking to the great British public's perception that it is always the FAA who fly off carriers. There were 3 squadron-sized units at Cottesmore and only one of those was RN
No offence taken. It is generally the great British publics opinion anything that flies is RAF.
A true statement can also be misleading. Whilst the RAF Squadrons did obviously fly from the carrier in the GR7/9 days, I am struggling to remember an RAF det (since Oman Feb 05, IV Sqn) which was longer than a couple of weeks and purely there to gain quals rather than actually be involved in larger scale exercises. Equally the RN had the majority of the Night Boat Qualified pilots by the end.