Others who contribute have a better knowledge than me of the detail why Snoopy was 'retired'. However, I understand it was all tied to the Met Office need to fund its move west from Bracknell so, as a cost saving, they decided to out source provision of the flight research facility. BEagle's favourite company got the contract and guess what, they have delivered a 146 rather late.
As to QQ being charged a nominal £1 for Snoopy, TT may be right but QQ will have charged that £1 back to the MOD plus Mark-Up plus Fee plus VAT etc.
lm