Procurement
Having been on various BAe development projects, I suggest you look right there;
as long as the boxes were ticked, no-one in management positions gave the slightest thought as to ' could the kit do it's stuff in real war situations' let alone suggest b****g obvious simple improvements.
Even test pilots grew used to this, and eventually kept their heads down & shut up ( I'm talking of the late 80's - 90's ) - it seemed they relied on the OEU to highlight shortcomings, which of course was too late & without any financial clout.
BAe management simply couldn't care less - A, they were clueless about anything but bean counting, B, they would be in their next short term position long before any problems cropped up.
S.E.P; someone elses' problem...