Military Airworthiness?
You pose the question Nige, rhetorical though it may be, and my reply is why should it be any different? Those in the know, yourself, tuc, JB, SH, etc might well reply that military aviation airworthiness is different because military aviation is different. That is true but only up to the point where civil standards are not practical, ie system redundancy, landing and take off performance, munitions carriage and fit, etc. In short civil standards should apply as a default, and alternative standards only applicable where such conflict is unavoidable. For military airworthiness standards not only protect the military crews and passengers, but civilian ones too (eg where TCAS applies), and populations over which they fly. The MODs failure to meet a duty of care applies to those people as well. That duty needs to be urgently transferred to an MAA so that protection is assured.