I take your point, Widger, and PWC are a very capable company. However, our experience of contracting out anything hasn't exactly been great, has it? Partly because virtually every MoD contract is seen as a massive cash cow and partly because the companies' lawyers are bigger than ours so the contracts always end up favouring the manufacturer/supplier/contractor.
APG63, you remember too much! The Typhoon Police will come and find you! As I recall, we said,
"Your radome isn't compliant with our radar."
The Germans said,
"Your radar isn't compliant with our radome!"
So we had to take another price hike to bolt the antenna on 90° out to change to polarization. So, yes, budget cuts do put up prices, but so does contractor incompetence.