@ Squirrel 41
Whatever your (and others') understandable frustration in very straitened times, I'm sure you'll be with me (and others) in wishing the crew and aircraft a successful first (and subsequent) flight tomorrow morning.
The to-ings and fro-ings of negotiations (including any "get out" clauses the UK government may have to deal with, let alone how to pay for substitutes) will happen in the Ministerial stratosphere, and we poor mortals will just have to view (and accept) events from afar.
While I'm happily retired from the daily round of toil, you're clearly much more directly concerned - me, I just hope that the RAF will eventually get the Transport fleet it needs - if commitments in sandy places aren't found to be too expensive as well ...