What party animal wrote in post 148 encapsulates the problem entirely. If BAE had presented their plan to a room full of engineers of Corporals and below, they would have been laughed out of the room. To take a British vintage aircraft, replace the wings and engines, upgrade the electronics, and turn it into a 21st century MPA was an utterly preposterous idea.
Anyone who has even minimal experience of maintaining British aircraft, and, especially vintage British aircraft such as the Comet, knows that even the simplest of jobs can, and often does, turn into a task of epic proportions. So to believe that BAE could deliver the product, you would have to be on extremely strong mind altering drugs, or be totally ignorant.
The problem was that BAE pitched to aircrew, and as aircrew run the show, anything that is shiny and has bright lights on it, and lots of wup wup noises coming from the flightdeck is possible.
BAE knew its audience well, and the only audience it could sell a polished turd to was a group of RAF aircrew. Something BAE has done with amazing regularity and success over the years. Whatever the merits of the re-engineered comet, it was the wrong aircraft, chosen by the wrong people, and yet again the RAF is now paying the price for being suckered into buying one of BAE's polished turds.