One small observation:- Is it not correct that there were flaws in the No 7 bay design that go back all the way to the late 60s and also a failure to act on information from the AEW3 programme in the 80's? Why was the 'airworthiness card' not held up then?
Is it not a little simplistic to think that every problem was created in the last 15 years and all that went before that must have been perfect?
Fatal airworthiness failures that needed the 'airworthiness card' are not just limited to the military world:-
http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/365...aboard-26.html
http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/365...aboard-27.html
So replicating a CAA is not an
automatic answer.