Just to correct billynospares; As launch customers for the J the UK aircraft were the standard. It could be said that it was the US that took them non standard. Admittedly the standard of J the UK accepted wasn't up to much, but for once you can blame the Lockheed accountants who designed it (to quote a Lockheed engineer) rather than the UK MOD.
Having gone through the painful birth of the J it was sole destroying to watch Airbus make the same mistakes.