F/A-18RN,

Not this P1154 myth again. It didn’t work! The concept of plenum chamber burning, the only way you will ever get a vectored thrust aircraft with a Harrier type layout to go supersonic, was a flawed concept from the outset. It was not practical in the mid sixties when it was first proposed and it was still not workable when they tried it again in the eighties, it was then abandoned for good.

If the RAF and or RN had persevered with the P1154 in whatever form instead of the F-4 you would have had a seriously inadequate front line in the late sixties and seventies.
The RAF rejected the Buccaneer repeatedly because, among other things, the requirement that led to TSR-2 had a Mach 2 high level element and the Buccaneer could get nowhere near that. They only accepted it when it was the last option remaining after cancellation of TSR-2, F-111K, AFVG and UKVG and even then it was as an interim type pending what eventually became Tornado via MRCA.
A two seat P1154 in place of the lightning is simply a non starter and would have been totally inadequate. The RN were never keen on P1154 and as a fleet air defender it was always second or third rate compared to the F-4.
When P1154 was cancelled a developed version of the experimental P1127 was proposed as a partial replacement for Hunters along with the Spey Phantom, this P1127(RAF) became what we know today as Harrier. This was as far as the P1154 could ever have been taken. That is why Harrier is being replaced by the F-35 and not a supersonic Pegasus development.

P1154 was a journey down a dead end.

A lot of what you said I was aware of, particularly Buccaneer’s transonic performance and the Navy’s reluctance to go with P1154, though not, I admit the extent of the development problems. I was speculating really on how (if they could have gotten P1154 to work) the RAF might not have needed as many different types of frontline fast jets. If anything I prefer an RAF with Phantoms, TSR2s, Harrier GR3s (and later 5s) and single-seat Jaguars and an FAA with Phantoms and Buccaneers flying from two or more CTOL CVA-01s.

Indeed if CVA-01 had gone ahead as a CTOL carrier (and CVA-02,03 even) the two services could conceivably have collaborated on the Tornado project. The Navy could have had either straightforward navalised versions of both the GR1 and F3 or a dedicated version that combined both roles to replace its Phantoms and Buccaneers just like the RAF. The savings both financially and logistically would have been reason enough depending on the degree of commonality between the various types of Tornado.

I think these are pictures are pretty good. And the website below should also be helpful.
http://www.harrier.org.uk/history/history_p1154.htm
Please not the similarity between the cockpit/intake arrangement of the Phantom and that of the two-seat P-1154.