...
...BAES was the reason for inflating the price of the modification of the carriers. This would be because BAES wanted to keep us in the market for the B model...
CM, it's a credible theory. Yet every vested interest going is busy blaming another for each twist and turn of the plot. Fact and fiction mingles with the need for revenge for long festering grudges and perceived slights and perfidy, so it's very difficult for an interested bystander to make any sense of it - assuming that there is some sense to be made in the first place.
An item in
Defence News gave a brief explanation of the ever increasing cost of EMALS conversion, but it may need one of our learned engineers to tell us if this explanation has any validity.
F-35B: Anatomy of a decision - Defence Management