The F-35A is indeed 'the air force jet', and it would be the RAF that would operate them. The C offers very little advantage over the A for land-based ops. Again, in terms of range the difference in radius-of-operations is about 10 n miles. The C is also less agile and more expensive.
I think the obstacles facing a B/C mix are as much political are they are performance based though. Having already decided once that we are going to buy it only to then go and change our minds, I can't see how the government (of whichever persuasion)/MoD can go back and reverse the decision they already reversed.
Still, it's all conjecture, which is why I qualified my initial post with "think" rather than "know". The point I was making to T93 was that there was some basis to my thought.
Last edited by melmothtw; 5th Nov 2014 at 18:32.