It's quite funny to read these arguments because as Gnd said, this decision was taken over a year ago! If you don't know the outcome, it's probably because you don't need to!! (Don't bite too hard, that bit was ironic!)
Let's not kid ourselves that the decision as to who was to operate the aircraft had anything to do with operational capability. It had nothing whatsoever to do with capability and everything to do with single service politics. The outcome gave a little of something to each of the two services who contested ownership and interestingly now, both parties are struggling to arrive at the position that the 'carve up' requires.
Still, days to do...........