Not all journalists are the same. There are a handful who confound the PPRuNe received wisdom, who know what's going on, and who tell it exactly like it is.
Two UK aviation journos stand head and shoulders above the rest, in my view. Both write beautifully. Both have massive intellects, great contacts, and enough raw enthusiasm and natural curiosity to keep on top of their respective areas of expertise. Both have incisive and analytical minds, and I view anything that they write as being well worth reading. I count my time well spent, reading a technical or in-depth programme piece by Doug Barrie (Aviation Week, ex-Flight, ex-JDW).
Just as I view anything by Francis Tusa as being just as useful a guide to the more political and personal (how key movers and shakers are thinking) factors that lie behind the news. His newsletter (Defence Analysis) is expensive, but it's always thought provoking, informative and invariably amusing. If you have the cash, you should subscribe, even at £300 per year or so.
Francis told me that it is his understanding, having got an in-depth translation of the original report, that this €5bn extra (or a large part of it, perhaps) is the "cost" of the UK having to "buy" "extra" aircraft to replace those that we are selling to Saudi Arabia.
It is not a net cost, but a gross one, and takes no account of Saudi money coming in in payment for these jets, nor of the lower UPC that will result from the increased production total...
We seem to have utterly forgotten to observe rule *1.
NEVER trust German newspaper reports on defence: they are inevitably riddled with errors!