Ok, open invitation to any MP, MOD civil servant, senior RAF officer, CAS himself perhaps:
How can 14 aircraft cost £13 billion?
Why can we not but some Boeings/ Airbuses etc ourselves, & run them ourselves, just for our own use without some useage off set with an airline?
Answers please, or I'll have to just believe that it's some accounting nonsense where you avoid capital expenditure in the short term but pay through the nose in the long term....prove me wrong!