I don't dispute that the unit cost has risen and indeed it may well be a budget of nearer £3.8Bn (not a figure I recognise but then what do I know) but unit cost and budget are 2 different things. To state that the aircraft are 4 x over budget is disingenuous at best. Pedantic I know but in these headline grabbing, sound-bite days, accuracy is important and the simple fact is that the MRA4 "budget" has not suddenly expanded to £12Bn (wish that it had!!!). More than happy to accept that unit cost has apparently increased. If that is what you meant then fine.
As an aside, knowing what I know now rather than 10 years ago when I fisrt joined the project, there was no way the RAF was going to get 21 MRA4's. See Tuc's many lucid and clear posts on why that was always a pipe-dream.
I will say that having flown the beast, the aircraft is already an impressive bit of kit and has huge potential (and I mean huge); it is, as always, up to the politicians to decide if we get to develop and exploit that potential, I'm just a driver airframes.
