Apologize for thread drift. End of discussion.
No, drift ok 500, will get us back on.
You say
.."plus the good relationship we have with the US that means we can virtually have access to anything"...
Not exactly true, as we probably would have preferred F-22 for air superiority, or dominance is the latest buzz word, but US was not going to release that to anyone...not to Japan, Israel, us. But even F-22 would not have solved our "bomb truck" requirement...that is where F-35 comes in, plus we have some insurance fortunately with Super Hornet.
Nostalgia time, takes me back to the day...what will replace the F-111? Well there was never an F-111 replacement.
Tornado could carry half as much, half the distance (the song goes "bombs in a bucket, 25 miles from base!").
I guess that made it a 1/4 F-111.
So Super Hornet was a good call, the only thing else available was a Strike Eagle, but with Hornet already in the inventory, SH was a laydown.
Having lived through the F-111 development problems - and experiencing what a great and flexible aircraft that became - I am keeping my fingers crossed for JSF/F-35, since we are now committed to 72 of them.