All this bashing of BAES leaves me wondering why the responsibility for failure has not been more fairly divided between the company and the MOD. Don't misunderstand my defence of the company because I claim credit for originating the 'British Waste O'Space' title.
However, there have been and still are some very able people working at the various parts of this British company (albeit with shareholders in many foreign countries just like the rest of so-called UK companies) and they deserve better than the outcome of several of the failing projects highlighted in the previous posts.
Major defence expenditure almost invariably places the delivering company at the mercy of the inefficiencies of Whitehall and project management within the company is greatly influenced by decisions outside of their control. The company cannot be held entirely responsible for the failures so let's just be fair to our fellow Brit workers please.
If there is government money available for R & D or investment in technology let it be channelled to a British company for goodness sake because then even if nothing useful emerges at least 25% will be recovered in tax.