Would Britain have adopted a STOVL anti-submarine package demonstrated on a Harrier trainer?
Short answerOnly if it could support helicopter-style work such as dipping sonar; a fixed-wing-only package would fit Royal Navy ASW practice poorly.
NotesThe key question is whether the proposed aircraft behaves like a hovering rotorcraft or a fixed-wing S-3 Viking. A tilt-rotor able to hover could carry dipping sonar and integrate with the Royal Navy's established helicopter method. A purely fixed-wing package would offer range and speed but would not perform the same close search and localization task. That mismatch would make it much less attractive to a service already invested in helicopter ASW. The lesson is that winning an exercise does not by itself prove a platform fits the fleet's operational system.