I'm not sure it couldn't have been operated by someone other than the USAF, but I agree that basing it over here would have been difficult. We were involved in it, with at least 2 test flights and a brit exchange pilot, from the early days. My worry is that if we had procured it we would have inevitably messed it up - a paragraph in that article sums it up:
Believed to be dubbed F-117C, the British variant, was planned to be equipped with “B-2 type intakes, a F-22 type clear-view canopy, British avionics, F414 or EJ200 engines, plus a number of BAE structural components or sub-assemblies.”