Arters, that was true once the PFI nonsense hijacked the FLA programme a couple of years later, but at the time (1996) the first 'MRTT' was supposed to be entering service well before 2007! Still intended then to be the excellent A310MRTT, albeit of the Filton flavour......
I remember a certain civil serpent announcing "This programme WILL NOT SLIP!!" when the PFI idiocy first came along.
Will not slip, eh?