Thank you tucumseh, for a readable authoritative and succinct resume of the road to purgatory. How on earth could air ranking professionals, be they pilots or engineers, participate in such a doomed enterprise? "I was merely obeying orders" doesn't even begin to explain this lemming like abandonment of fundamental Flight Safety principles. No matter what changes are made in house to rehabilitate UK Military Airworthiness Provision, the fact remains that if it could happen once then it can happen again and again. Airworthiness is not safe solely in the hands of the MOD, or any other user for that matter. It must be enforced by a separate and independent authority, an MAA.