Are you sure? Thats why we are spending billions of pounds on big transatlantic capable air tankers for the RAF. I mean AAR or proper air tankers?
The F35 may or may not get buddy tanks refuelling later down the road anyway.
Can I ask why people get so upset about us using helicopter based AEW. If I recall the Merlin is more powerful and can stay up longer than the SeaKing so the range should be better and the ceiling is what 12,000 ft to 15,000ft is'nt it. I don't see why the hysteria about we must have fixed wing AEW.
Chopper based AEW seems to be good enough for fleet defence and for country based stuff we have what 7 odd AWACS?