Orca, I agree with the thrust of your argument completely, if I had been CAS back when the decision was made, I would like to have told BAe to find someone else to bankroll them and we'd all be flying Strike Eagles, in large numbers, right now. My point is that we're about to make the exact same mistake again...crippling every other element of the military for a jet that is almost 100%, at this point, not going to be working when we get it or anywhere near the initial budget. For me, the F35 is going to have the same storyline, but even more frustrating and with fewer numbers.
And your point that Typhoon won't be getting up to spec until 2018...right when we're scraping 1/3 of them to pay for the gold-plated wonderjet - that will still be a developmental aircraft - further reinforces my point that we should be making the most out of Typhoon while it's a good jet and then replace half of them with the F35 after 2020...once the JSF begins to get up to spec.
We need to get out of the mindset that by having the JSF in 2015, we're somehow going to be a supreme air power that is capable of taking on the world, when in fact we're crippling ourselves for a non-existent capability. Don't get me wrong, I'm fully convinced the F35 will eventually become a war-winner that we should buy eventually, but we shouldn't be destroying everything it's taken us decades to develop, from challengers to Nimrods, for the sake of a jet in its extreme infancy.