Lonewolf, at a cost of GBP110 million (USD140 million) they had just all had their centre wingboxes replaced when the decision to get rid of them was announced. Boosted the chance of selling them at a good price I suppose.
As Ken Scott predicted in August 2020 on the
RAF receives first C-130J with replacement centre wingbox thread:
Originally Posted by
Ken Scott
Well, they’ll be for the chop in the upcoming SDSR then.
It is I believe straight saving money on running costs, especially on people, which IMHO has driven the focus on fewest possible types (not that rationalizing the number of types is a bad thing, if they can do the required jobs), the UK Treasury is clearly determined defence spending should rise above 41st place in the defence expenditure as a % of GDP league table. (The US is 16th in SIPRI's GDP list of countries for which they have 2021 data). We have few if any politicians who will fight for defence spending, it doesn't create enough jobs here anymore.