Surely the blame for all this does not lie with either political party but with the people that selected the aircraft .....The Navy! And no I am not fan of either side of politics.
I am not too familiar with the procurement process but...
Surely it was the Navy who wrote the requirements, ran the competition and then selected (or recommended) the S2G(A). The people who fund these projects rely on the supposed subject matter experts when giving approval...or am I missing something?