Thanks Gentlemen,
I rely on the wisdom available here to sort the wheat from a lot of chaff in these things.
Engines - I'm appalled but not surprised by this; I'd always understood that the F136 would offer a performance edge, and the NAO / GAO view IIRC was that on balance it was likely to cover the cost of developing it through life. This basically meant that it if the worst case was that you'd probably break-even, then it was obviously worthwhile pursuing. As you say, giving P&W a monopoly on the largest military engine programme going forwards seems like a pretty odd way of incentivising them on price or performance.
A shame!
S41