PhillipG,
Way back down the comments you asked how the F-35 was going to 'get past' the MOD, or more specifically the MAA.
The answer is with continuing a lot of hard work by people at Abbey Wood, Crystal City, Pax River, Eglin, Edwards and Beaufort (I'll add Warton and Samlesbury too!).
What helps is that the UK has had design and programme input from the very early days of F-35B, have had RN and RAF engineers working hands-on with F-35 for over 5 years, have had the MAA involved early and the fact that the F-35 is built in the era of safety cases and risk matrices (unlike Airseeker).
A lot of work continues to go on but we have 3 aircraft already flying on UK Military Flight Test Permits, on the UK register. Despite the comments F-35 is the only current UK aircraft with a modern AESA radar so a lot of work is done keeping the MAA up to date with the technology involved. UK personnel embedded with Flight Test, including Sea Trials and Handler trials have fed back info that should make QEC integration easier.
There is still have a way to go but the UK has a lot of very good people slogging hard to make this jet a success for the UK.