Unfortunately, I fear you may be right. If, God forbid, the worst does happen, will the Government use the same old excuse of "It's all the fault of the Tories?" It would appear Mr Blair is averse to risking his majority, or his image, but is only too keen to risk the lives of our Armed Forces.
And to think some US people are worried about the loss of the F14, even though they will have the Super Hornet.
Meanwhile -
this link is not directly related to the issues of this thread, but is still interesting.