Yes I admit that I worked for them; mainly civil but with one short auspicious dabble in Nimrod 2000. I had a 6 months secondment as an advisor; not that it took 6 months to establish the appalling state of organisation and planning (operations / flight deck design), it took that long to find my replacement.
Yet BAe has delivered what has been asked of them; for the country - stable job opportunities, increased knowledge and technology, and foreign revenue (mainly oil). This was achieved under the auspices of a defence budget, providing the armed forces with tools of the trade, but perhaps with a belief (hope) that the expertise of these services would not be required. Unfortunately the political gambit, risk, bluff, etc, has been called, more by circumstance than by plan.
We did in fact get what we asked for, well being, employment, oil. Now we suffer the downside of the high life, and the reality of less than ideal military system. Hopefully there are still aspects of the original plan where the previously established solid foundations of our industry can be used to aid the recovery, but as with designing, testing and proving modern military systems this is not a quick process, and particularly as with military issues, the recovery will require a good management – Clausewitz, ‘The Principles of War’ comes to mind as good reading for the politicians, manderins, and military mangement.