“The F-35 would not be here today if it wasn’t for the U.K.,”
Thanks for that, Boot, and Britain would not be committed to building two JSF compliant STORVL carriers for the price of three Super Hornet conventional flight deck carriers if it wasn't for the USMC.
I'm afraid that although that is tempting to believe it is also utter b8llocks. The price of the ships is almost nothing to do with F35, nor contrary to popular belief is it to do with jobs in the constituency next door to Gordon (Saviour of the Financial Universe) Brown.
The price is almost all due to fudge and delay in the programme, due to a combination of somewhat ineffective RN bubbleheads being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the aircraft procurement being transferred to an organisation that doesn't "get" embarked maritime air and an organisation fighting a war and resenting big ticket items that don't immediately fit that war having to be paid for because equipment takes time to procure. All allied to a budgeting balance in MoD MB that is essentially performed using Excel spreadsheets and "silt charts" to move money between years, blithely assuming there will be no consequence.
Could we have got two ships cheaper? Almost certainly, had the above factors been different. Would they have been CTOL ships? Not without either acquiring steam cats from the states and assuming the associated manpower and cost burden, or taking a punt on EMALS much earlier with the risk provision at the time.
Are we right to be buying the ships? Hell yes, because provided they're big enough you can add to the airwing over time as your budgets change. If you don't buy them or build them too small, you're screwed. Endex.