Could it be?
Here's a thought, wild and out of nowhere....
Maybe, just maybe..... The PM did cancel it, maybe he knows something that you guys don't know, and maybe in the light of that info...... cancelling is better than using the MRA4
Maybe Big Jock knew (there's a hint to which foot I kick with) and wanted the "problems" fixed and the a/c into service but was ordered to STFU and then swiftly removed from office.
It's all possible.
Just because nobody has the balls to say it is unsafe / never going to work out / not what we need, is no guarantee that nobody thinks it.