On counterpoint, the 117 could have offered some utility to the RAF despite all the above.
- Yes it was perhaps a one trick pony, but it was a pretty good trick. A small element of "Silver Bullet" aircraft can prove handy in the first few days of a conflict.
- It would have given the UK access to stealth some 30 years before the UK fields a stealth aircraft. Perhaps this could have been useful for UK doctrine and aircraft development- maybe influenced the next generation of aircraft programs.
- Some comments about basing in the UK giving away the secret perhaps don't really matter. The offer was made in 1986. If the UK had taken up the offer it would have taken several years to build up the capacity (likely with a UK element in Nevada). So perhaps IOC a few years later- all by the time the 117 was first officially acknowledged in the US in 1988. There are quite a few RAF bases off the beaten path...a few have even been known to operate certain unmentioned aircraft..... Sure spotters would have seen them, but again we would be around the 1988-1990 time frame when the cat was already out of the bag.
- Much is made about the loss in Serbia, but no one ever said the aircraft was invisible. The USAF used poor tactics: underestimated the AA defenses, used predictable flights paths and unencrypted radio traffic during the raid, and IIRC the aircraft overflew the same target several times. Definite no no's.
- "might have done a good job in GW1/GW2 and Balkans, but...." That is why you buy warplanes. Yes it might have been expensive, but war is expensive. 6 Tornados were lost in combat in GW1. I believe all were lost on airfield attacks using non-precision weapons, all at night I believe, ~4 at low level. What is a better tactic? Penetrating at low level with dumb bombs, or dropping a precision weapon onto a shelter from a stealth fighter at a much safer altitude? The 117 excelled at these night precision strikes. What was the "cost" of the lost aircraft and brave crews?
- On support aircraft- granted support helped, but the 117 still had some utility by itself.
- The aircraft could self-designate. The UK used buddy designation for years which is less efficient.
- Now taking a perfectly good aircraft, having BAE rip everything out a put in UK engines and avionics- I believe we have been down that road before.
Just my thoughts. Maybe not such a terrible idea....