GK - I just said much the same thing in an adjacent thread.
http://www.pprune.org/military-aviat...ml#post8729015
However, you add an important bit of context in that in 2000-02 the RAF still hoped for something else beyond Tornado, and nobody knew how to spell UCAV outside the US.
And to repeat a point I have made a few times on the question of F-35C for the RAF: Much of the F-35C's extra fuel comes from ditching the internal gun and its feed system, rather than from bigger wings. The greater span should improve aero efficiency subsonic but it is also 5500 lb heavier empty than the A. The RAF's best bet would be a no-gun F-35A with a probe, but when it costs $246 million for a brake chute one can only imagine...