TBH, I find it really hard to believe that all the R&D cost associated with the STOVL variant was worth it, instead of just equipping a couple carriers with catapults and arrestor gear. Not to mention that the carrier variant is significantly more capable in terms of range and payload than the STOVL version.
As for manned vs. unmanned, while unmanned technologies are clearly developing rapidly, I suspect they're not ready yet for all the manned missions. Hence the JSF project is still warranted. Maybe the next gen JSF follow-up will be an entirely unmanned platform, who knows..
As for manned vs. unmanned, while unmanned technologies are clearly developing rapidly, I suspect they're not ready yet for all the manned missions. Hence the JSF project is still warranted. Maybe the next gen JSF follow-up will be an entirely unmanned platform, who knows..