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The Rafale is a better dogfighter than the Super Hornet, but the Super is superior in just about every other job... fleet air defense, strike, price per aircraft, etc. "Lending" Rafales would be fine, but the Brits shouldn't buy them (which is what the French ultimately want).

If I were the British minister of defense, I'd tell our SecDef "Hey, you know those Harriers you're buying from us? Instead, how about a swap for a like number of those USMC F/A-18C's and D's, and we'll call it even?"

This would give them a good affordable strike fighter to use in the interim with no cash expended, and then they could decide on where to go from there... Supers, Rafales, F-35C's, etc.

This is all assuming, of course, than they even have the carriers still and don't sell them to India or China right off the bat because of budget issues, which is very possible still.

I don’t know if the Super Hornet is ‘significantly’ ahead of the Rafale in the air defense role since the latter can leverage its superior kinematic capability and is also getting the an AESA/Meteor missile upgrade and it can carry a nearly equivalent payload despite being much lighter. Of course, the Growler EW variant is one of a kind. You are right about the Super Hornet’s price as well as being a mature aircraft, it would be a more than adequate fit for the RN.

I think the barter arrangment you described is very simplistic. For one, the USMC has all the logistics/training/management in place for those British Harriers, which are anyway likely to be used as spare hulks. The Brits on the other hand, need to start from scratch, so they will incur significant expenses and time issues.

Both of which negate the value of leasing used platforms.