Hi Nutloose,
You raise a good point. Forgive me for answering with a question.
How many weapons and systems are sold to a single customer? The point being that the U.K. could have bought a Westinghouse system if it wanted to.
Slightly more devious question. How many weapons and systems are sold where the customer has a 100% guarantee (and a way of assuring themselves that it’s true) that it’s not a watered down spec, or that the supplier (whether industry or state) may make details of the system available to others - either in a wartime assistance sense or as a precursor to further sales? Or that something critical wouldn’t be withheld (support, spares, crypto etc) in certain circumstances? Whether or not such dastardly practices are widespread it would be an optimistic customer who assumed that they weren’t.