Military Risk
Nigel,
Don't know without seeing JSP 553, but the old definitions and procedures do not seem to cover accepting the risks associated with deliberately flying an unairworthy aircraft even on operations where life is at stake (and whose life are we talking about anyway the crew or someone else's) - as opposed to flying without, say, the full clearance trials. If the definitions are still the same I do not see that AOC 2 Group had an ONSD route to fly a known unairworthy aircraft - but he clearly thought/thinks differently - perhaps because he was being advised that the aircraft was airworthy!
JB