GrantT
'The project was marred by delay after delay and a spiralling budget which was quite simply out of control.'
It would appear you have started by swallowing the politically inspired story, which is no basis for an objective assessment - your null hypothesis is flawed.
It is true that the project was very late to the original plan - but the revised plan, agreed in 2002, was on track until the Labour Government chose to delay entry into service to pay for helicopters.
Similarly, the costs were set at £3.602bn at the same time and, as noted by the National Audit Office in its annual report, had not risen since. The numbers of aircraft were cut by the MoD - but all of the kit (enough for 18 in most cases) had long been purchased - hence no real savings for cutting numbers.
That's around 8 years of reasonable programme and cost control, spoilt at the end by a ridiculous decision.
Don't be distracted by the 'it was never safe' conspiracy theorists either. The problems of a brand new, highly complex aircraft were real enough - but not showstoppers. The main reason for the release to service delays was the MAA not knowing how to discharge what it was set up to do - and then demanding rework of design evidence to comply with their new regs.
There are a lot of raw people - in the RAF, the MOD and Industry, many who will be facing Christmas with redundancy hanging over them. Please don't insult them by suggesting this was anything other than a political decision.
By the way - 5,000 words won't scratch the surface.