Well the U turn on the strike aircraft has been U turned. We are back to the VSTOL variant of the F35, which means less payload, less range, less strike capability. Actually we might not be able to operate in hot environments!
It gets us two things some cost savings (which I think you can immediately write off as there will be further cost overruns), and maybe a faster delivery.
Meanwhile our Navy pilots are training in America to keep skills alive, in the current day F-18. Why don't we structure the contract to have these from day one on the carrier and only buy into F35 when America has got it working!
At this rate we are going to end up with an expensive BaE carrier, with no inter-operability with the US - with which we can draw up to some danger spot and pretend to launch stealth aircraft from!
As always Lewis Page has a good analysis of the self interested parties involved in this kind of decision making:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/10/f35_u_turn_idiocy/
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