Couple of points from a very experienced Industry bod who had no involvement in AirTanker at all (but was central to some other big deals)...
1) Loss of airframe. Under all normal operations this is covered by insurance. You have to ensure the asset as the end of the day, the banks want the money back that they have loaned... Otherwise you would never get the loan. My understanding is that in certain circumstances (eg. all out shooting war), the Government takes on the risk of replacing the asset or paying back the bank.
2) (Financially) IT'S A MORTGAGE.... of course it's going to cost more than buying the equipment but we'd all buy our own houses if we could outright. The balance has to be made for affordability
3) (operationally) IT'S BETTER THAN A MORTGAGE... You get assurance the equipment / service will operate or you withhold payment until it works... try doing that with your mortgage payment when the bolier breaks down and see how far it gets you
It's not a perfect system, mainly because the process around the procurement is so long, drawn out and impractical that the requirement has changed before the system is contracted for. Also the Government needs to implement more flexibility so the systems / service can change without huge cost deltas. These are all fixable problems. We sort them out on a business to business basis all the time. But the bottom line is, we never had the cash to buy the Tankers anyway so unless you want to keep flying VC-10, Tristar and wasting HUGE amounts leasing AT, I suggest (respectfully) you get behind the program.
Also one final point. I have civilian troops in harms way, every day in the sandy places of the world. They are no less dedicated to the cause than their military counterparts and to suggest they are does them a grave injustice. Most of us in the defence industry have the same values that you do, that's what makes us proud to do the job of supporting you.